Rise of the Survivors
by maddyk Wolfbark
Summary: In the year 2020, Maddy wakes up in a theater, with no recollection of the past night. Right then, a person attacks her. This person is infected with a disease, and he is known as a 'walker.' She tries to find her friends and family, but she makes lots of sacrifices along the way. Will the world ever return to normal?
1. Prolouge

***** THIS IS A FANFICTION OF THE WALKING DEAD*****

*****I DON'T OWN WALKING DEAD (but that would be awesome if I did)***  
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*****Some of the characters are based off of real people***  
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*****I work with Daisyheart, so go and check her out! She owns 'Defying the odds'***  
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*****She is Megan, and Megan is her name in real life :)***  
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*****I will update the story every Friday, and sometimes on other days***  
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*******ENJOY!*****  
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Prologue

12/06/2020

My name is Maddy. I was 18 when this whole 'apocalypse' started. I used to be a normal kid, seeing my friends, having parties, going to school. But that all ended one night.

Have you ever seen a zombie movie? Nearly every kid has. But I wasn't like most of them. Unlike my friends, I dreamed of a zombie apocalypse. My favorite show was about zombies, I read zombie books, I even bought games and action figures. I had a zombie calendar in my room. Yes, I was waiting until the day when the dead would rise up to devour the living. I thought that I was ready.

Until I was put in the situation. Like I said, my name is Maddy. I'm also known as Mega Maddy, Maddy the ninja, and "that zombie freak." I thought I could survive the zombies.

Then one day my dream came true. I woke up to a world full of zombies-or walkers, as I call them, and I realized that this "dream" I had, was just another nightmare. Will I survive? Not even I know. I guess you'll have to find out the hard way. But if you're reading this, then you're lucky. You aren't dead. I don't even know why I'm writing this diary, sitting in a cold tent, in the middle of the night. I'm guessing that my diary will be destroyed, like everything else in this world, but there's a slim chance you are reading this, and that is why I write on. I have to get my story out. It has just been me and a few other survivors, and we think we're nearing the end. We just discovered a place where we may be safe, but now even the living will try to kill us, just for our supplies.

I'm not going down without a fight though. I'll write this diary until the end, and who knows, maybe this whole virus will blow over. The CDC will fix this, won't they? Who am I kidding, there probably isn't a single person out there reading this, is there?


	2. Chapter 1

1

"Oof," I mumbled as I sat up. _What the heck happened?_ I wondered. I looked around the movie theatre I had been sitting in. I thought back. _Well, I was watching a zombie movie, then…, _I searched around in my brain, _there was a big crash and the theatre shook. Was it a bomb?_

I searched my row of movie seats. There were six men, and two women. All dead. I started shaking as I looked at the blood covering a man. All across his neck were bloody scars, still fresh. I took a step towards the man when I tripped. I screamed, and threw out my arms to break the fall.

"Shhhhhhhh!" A voice said. I spun around to see a kid a few years younger than me. My eyes widened with shock. "Logan? Is that you?" He nodded. "Hi Maddy." I quickly added "Oh my God Logan how the heck did you get in here! Your parents would never let you come see a zombie movie!" When I saw the angry look on his face I changed the subject. "So… what the heck happened?"

Logan glanced over to the man as he started to stir. Logan spoke fast, but knew what he was saying. "Y'know that movie we were watching? About the zombies? Yah well… some guy burst in here, and attacked a whole bunch of people. We thought it was a joke, but the people were actually getting hurt. Then a security guard ran in and shot at it. Now the people are coming back to life as… them." As Logan finished, the man stood up. Blood dripped from his neck and he limped towards us. Logan frantically searched around to find something to use. He glanced at a wall and ran over. "Distract it!" he hissed at me.

I waited until it was a few feet away, and then I jumped over the seats in front of me. The walker limped around the row of seats and I jumped again. By the third time, it knew what I was going to do. I jumped, and it tried to reach over the seat. As I felt its' cold nails touch my skin, its' hand shuddered and the walker fell, limp. I whirled around to see that it was sprawled on the floor, with an axe blade lodged deep into its' head. Logan looked at me, grabbed the axe, and said, "We need to find some weapons." Logan and I searched around the bodies, until I found a large pocketknife.I was shocked that the man had been let in, holding such a large weapon. I found a green backpack lodged behind my seat, and realized that it was mine. It had a book, my Rick Grimes action figure, and my diary, all stuffed in it. I held my pocketknife, and looked at Logan. "We should probably get out, maybe even scavenge some stuff from this theatre." He nodded, and we walked out.

We hit the concession stand first. Logan found a blue backpack in the hall, and I watched him stuff it with candy from behind the counter. "Think about it!" He exclaimed to me, "It's the zombie apocalypse! Candy isn't being made anymore! You know how rare this stuff will be? We can trade it for supplies later!" I grinned and nodded, thinking that he probably wasn't going to trade it. I raised my knife in caution, and inched closer to the supply room. I slowly opened the door.


	3. Chapter 2

2

"Mmmmmmoooooan" something sounded. I shone my flashlight (which Logan had given me) in the darkness. It revealed at least ten zombies, but behind them, important supplies. "Logan!" I screamed. He came running, wielding his axe with no caution, and almost cut off his leg. "Ugh… Boys." I murmured, and moved my knife with lightning speed. There was a crunch and a splat as my knife pierced a zombie's skull. Then Logan appeared next to me and chopped a zombie on my right. I felt something on my shoulder, and turned to see it was a zombie biting me. A sickening feeling lurched me backwards, into the zombie. Logan's eyes widened and he chopped the zombie's head. I quickly threw my shirt off my shoulder.

I sighed in relief as I saw no cut, mark, or even a bruise. My shirt must have taken most of the damage. I adjusted my shirt so it was on both shoulders, and killed another zombie. I looked at Logan, to see his eyes glowing with fear, but so much glee behind it. He was surrounded by limp, motionless bodies. He stepped forward, to reveal guns as far as the eye could see. There were full-body protection suits, (probably because of the shooting last year,) and guns and ammo. I grabbed a suit, and so did Logan. They were big on us, considering that they were adult sizes. Logan grabbed a m-14, full of ammo. He shoved ammo in all of his pockets. He also took a handheld pistol and tied it in his belt. I took a Python (which Rick Grimes uses) and I also took an AK-47. I shoved ammo in my backpack. I whispered to Logan, "lets grab as much as we can, in case our group gets bigger. We grabbed a shotgun, handheld pistols, and so many other guns. We ended up nearly clearing out the room. We limped to the exit, weighed down by the guns. I said to Logan, "where should we go? Your house?" He nodded. I pictured Logan's house in my mind. It was a large house, and in a small neighborhood. It was ideal for an apocalypse. There were woods in the backyard, and a large lake past that.

Logan shuffled forwards. I followed, raising my knife at the slightest sound. Logan asked me, "Why are you still using that? We have guns now." I said, "We may have guns, but we have limited ammo. We don't want to use ammo on just a few wandering walkers." "Walkers?" Logan asked. I nodded. "I think walkers are a better name." Then I added, "And guns are loud. We could attract more walkers than we needed to." We continued walking. We reached the entrance to Logan's neighborhood. I grinned and looked at Logan. There was no sign of walkers so far. Within a few moments, we reached Logan's house. I ran inside. "Hi Mrs. Kelly, Mr. Jamie! Hi Aiden! Hi Colton!" Logan frowned, and put his hand on my shoulder. A sickening feeling pierced me. They were dead. He said to me, "They might have gotten out…" I think he was saying that more to himself than to me, though.

We ran up to Logan's room. "So, Logan, do you-" I was cut off by a terrified scream. _I know that scream…_ I thought. There was no time to run downstairs and out the door. I know Logan's house, and I know his roof too. I leaped out his window, onto his roof. I sprinted across the roof, and jumped off. I wasn't that far up, and I landed safely. I saw a girl, but not just any girl. It was Megan! My eyes widened with shock, and hers did the same. I started killing zombies. I went to kill one, and saw that it wasn't a zombie, but it was Renee! I quickly examined the scene. Kate and Megan were pressed against a tree, Renee was kicking zombies, and Kristen was failing at trying to run away, because a walker grabbed her shoe. I pulled out my AK-47, and fired one shot at the walker next to Kristen. "Maddy!" Logan called from the roof. He threw a bow at me. I caught it, and started firing arrows at the walkers near Megan and Kate. Logan leaped off the roof and stabbed the zombie closest to Kate. He looked up at her, took her hand and looked deep into her eyes. "What is your name? Come run off to the playground with me!" Then Kate replied, "Wha-?" and slapped him. I shot the walker Renee was kicking, and saw that there were no walkers left. "Maddy!" Megan called. She ran over and gave me a hug. I returned it. "Wow… It's really you guys." Then a thought pressed my mind. "Are you all okay? Did any of you get bit?" "No…" Kate replied, "We're okay, but Matisse may not be." "Matisse was with you?! Where is she now?" "She broke her stupid high heel. She was trying to fix it, and she got lost." "Oh great." I mumbled, "She may be a total loser, but she's my friend. I'll go find her." "I'll protect Kate!" Logan yelled. "You know there are other people here right?" Renee started. I let the conversation drown out in the background. I put my backpack in Megan's hands. "Could you carry this inside?" She nodded. I had my knife, my python, and my new bow with me. I gathered my arrows from the scene. I ripped them out of walker's heads. I waved goodbye to my friends, and ran off.


	4. Chapter 3

3

I came upon a pharmacy pretty soon. I knew Matisse was here when I saw a broken high heel on the ground. I imagined Matisse looking for everyone, wearing only one shoe. I stifled a laugh. I looked around the setting. I wondered if she could be inside. I started to walk into the front door, when I heard a scream. I spun around, to see a girl running from a walker. _Matisse?_ I wondered. I ran after her. I got closer, and raised my knife. I dove for the walker, and slashed it in the back of the skull. I looked up, and Matisse was standing ahead of me. She hadn't seen me. I decided to play her a prank. I groaned, and limped over. She saw me, and ran. "MOOOOOOAN!" I groaned, and sprinted over. I grabbed her shoulders, and she screamed. Then I whispered in her ear, "Hi loser!" She spun around, and I laughed. She yelled, "Maddy! That wasn't funny!" I continued to laugh. Then I said, "Take a joke, buddy. Are you alright?" She nodded. "That was my only zombie encounter." Then I nodded, and motioned for her to follow me.

We walked for a few minutes. When we were close to Logan's house, Matisse whispered, "Did you hear that?" I listened. It sounded like the pounding of footsteps. _Running_ footsteps. I ran towards the sound. Matisse yelled, "Maddy! Wait up!" I didn't slow down, but I sped up. I came close to the sound. I looked ahead to see a girl. She tripped, and the walker that was behind her, got closer. I ran faster towards the girl, but it was too late. I came within shooting distance, right when the walker ripped her chest open. The girl tried to scream, but all that came out was a wheeze, and she started to cough up blood. I shot the walker, and ran to the girl. Her eyes were wide with fear. I held her hand. "I'm sorry that this happened to you." I said. She nodded, but the movements made her cough up blood again. She shuddered, and went still. At that moment, Matisse caught up. She looked at the dead girl, and a shocked look spread across her face. She tugged on my shirt sleeve. "Let's go Maddy." "No." "Why not?!"

"Because," I started, "If we leave her like this, she'll come back." I pulled the arrow out of the walker, and got my bow ready to fire. Matisse tried to pull my hand away, but I gave her a look, and she stopped. "We have to shoot her. You know that." I told Matisse. Her eyes were sad, but she understood, and she nodded. Matisse turned away as I shot the arrow into the girl's head.


	5. Chapter 4

4

We walked back to Logan's house in silence. When we got back, everyone greeted us frantically with smiles, but when they saw the haunted looks in our eyes they grew quiet. The silence drew out until Logan asked, "What happened?" Everyone stared at Matisse and I. "There…There was…" Matisse started, and then she looked at me. I sighed. "There was a girl… We heard running… But it was too late." Logan nodded sadly. "But…" I continued, "If there was one person, there could be more." "That's smart Maddy!" Logan continued. "I'll go search by the lake! I can bring one person. Kate?" "Yeah?" "Want to come with me?" "Actually, no. No I don't." "Nonsense! You love me!" Logan dragged Kate off and everyone started to laugh. "I'll search the buildings. Would anyone like to come?" I questioned. Nobody answered. "Okay," I continued, "I'll go alone. Megan is in charge." Then I walked to the nearest building.

"Hello?!" I called into a building. No answers. I shrugged. _Maybe these people have something useful._ I dug through the nearest drawer. I found a box of matches and a screwdriver. I saw a closet and opened it. There were two coats. I shoved them in my backpack. I continued searching the house. I found nothing else that was useful, aside from a box of tissues and some multicolored Sharpies.

I walked to the next house. "Hello!?" I called out again. Nothing answered. I walked into a room. There were two beds. The weird thing was, it looked like someone was living in here. I slowly raised my bow. "Anyone in here?" I called out. "Yeah. Us!" I spun around and saw a girl wielding a sword. It had a golden blade and a black handle. The girl was wearing camouflage. Her waist-length brown hair had golden streaks in it. She had sparkling blue eyes, and black boots with gold laces. She looked hostile. I turned to run, but my path was blocked by a boy. He was dressed similarly. He was also holding a sword. His was blue. Unlike the girl, he was my height, and looked extremely hostile. I assumed that they were boyfriend-girlfriend. "Um… hi?" I said. The girl raised her sword. "Hi. Have you been bit?" "No." I replied. She lowered her sword. She signaled to the boy, and he did the same. She held out her hand. "Hi. I'm Alexa. This is my friend Jarrett." I nodded and shook her hand. "I'm Maddy. I have a large group up the road. Is it just you two here?" Jarrett nodded. "We are alone here." I said, "If you would like, you can join us." Alexa smiled. "Sure. We would-love to" I noticed that Alexa and Jarrett seemed to finish each other's sentences. I grinned and motioned my hand. "Pack up what you want, and let's get out of here."

Within a matter of minutes they were ready. They held their swords and I held my knife, as we walked outside. Jarrett carried a blue backpack, similar to Logan's. Alexa had a gold one hanging off one shoulder. We had only walked for a few moments when we heard glass break. "Crap!" I swore, and spun around. Alexa and Jarrett did too. They looked at each other and nodded. Alexa pointed at a walker. In the blink of an eye, Jarrett slashed a walker's head off, and Alexa pierced it in the eye. She ripped out the sword and pointed at another walker. _OH MY GOD, THEY ARE MENTALLY CONNECTED!_ I thought to myself. As they did that, I pulled out my bow and started firing glittering green arrows at walkers. Within a few minutes, there were dead walkers everywhere. Half of them were decapitated, and the other half had arrows sticking out of their heads. I collected my arrows, while Jarrett and Alexa wiped blood off their swords. We all nodded at each other, and started walking back to Logan's house. I walked in the front, Alexa was a few feet behind-right of me, and Jarrett walked to the left of her. We reached the house in a few minutes. "Holey crap." Logan greeted us. "Who are the creepy kids with the swords?!" I laughed, but Alexa said, "I'm Alexa, This is Jarrett. We're not creepy em kids." Logan grinned and Alexa returned the smile. I said to Logan, "So how was the lake? Did you find anyone?" "Nope," Logan replied, "But we did find a strawberry bush." He licked his lips. "We picked enough berries to feed the group for a month!" As we were laughing, I thought I saw something in the corner of my eye. "

Hey guys," I murmured, "Maybe we should get out of here." They all must have seen the haunted look in my eyes, because they quickly packed everything they could. "Logan, I forgot to ask; where did you get the bow?" I asked Logan. He led me to his basement, I had seen so many times before. He walked over to a wall, and pressed four buttons on a remote-control robot. The robot spoke. "Who is in need of access?" "Logan Glenn." Logan replied. The wall moved, to reveal a room full of weapons. "My dad had his hunting gear in here. He installed the password so my brothers wouldn't shoot each other. When I turned fourteen he gave me the code. I looked at the weapons and realized something.

"Why don't we just stay here in this room and make base here? It seems safe." Logan shook his head. "Only my voice will work. If anyone else talks an alarm would go off." I nodded. Logan grabbed hunting backpacks and shoved the hunting gear in it. Something caught my eye. It was a green crossbow, with more functions than a computer. I pulled my bow out from behind my shoulder and examined the crossbow. The crossbow was better, compared to my bow. I put my bow on the rack and picked up the crossbow. I found a sash it would hang on, and it had places to store the arrows. I put it on. I had a green jacket on underneath it. I placed my knife in the outer pocket. I placed my python inside my belt loop, and turned the safety on. Logan looked at my green jacket and his eyes widened. "I have something for you!" He disappeared, and reappeared a moment later, holding a green sword. It was alike Alexa's and Jarrett's. "My grandpa used this in world war two." Logan said, as he handed me the sword.

When all Logan's backpacks were full, we returned upstairs. He distributed the backpacks among the group. Logan and Jarrett's backpacks were blue, Alexa's was gold, Kate's was pink, Renee's was purple (figures), Kristen's was red, Megan's was orange, Matisse's was neon pink, and mine was green. Logan found a few tents in the basement, and then we were off. Everyone walked through the roads. I stood in the front, killing oncoming walkers. Logan and Alexa took the sides, taking out walkers next to us. Jarrett walked in the back, taking out wandering walkers. Kate, Renee, Kristen, Matisse, and Megan protected the supplies in the middle of the pack. Every time we saw a car, we checked for keys. Megan found a gas container, and we siphoned gas from the cars. After an hour or so, Kristen found a red car with two black stripes down the middle. Everyone immediately fell in love. We all hopped inside, but we all barely fit. The car was small, meant for only four people. We had two to every seat, and still, someone had to sit on the back of the car. Logan mumbled, "well… I can't drive". Jarrett said, "I can."


	6. Chapter 5

5

We started down the road. After ten minutes, Logan hollered, "Stop!" Jarrett skidded to s top. Logan hopped off the back of the car. He walked over to a huge RV ten feet from the car. Jarrett rolled down the window. "I thought you couldn't drive!" He yelled. Logan replied, "How hard can it be? Besides, it's better than sitting on the back of the car. Kate, Renee, Matisse, and Kristen hopped in the RV with Logan. In the red car, Jarrett drove, Alexa sat in the passenger seat, and Megan and I sat in the back. We continued driving down the road. I saw something in the corner of my eye, but when I looked, it was gone. I shuddered. Jarrett stopped the car. "What's wrong?" I asked. "Something is wrong with the engine." He honked twice and hopped out of the car. Logan stopped the RV and came to help fix the engine. I went out to help. I crouched down by the car. "What tools do you need to replace it?" I asked. He said "I'll fix this, just you go look for supplies in the cars." I nodded and started walking. At that moment I heard three gunshots. I spun around and saw that Jarrett's hand was bleeding, and part of the car's engine was destroyed. I pulled out my python. _No need to be quiet now._ I thought. I looked for the pursuers. There was a green car and a green motorcycle on the other side of the road. _I've seen them before…_ I remembered that the thing I saw earlier was a green car. I quickly fired a bullet at the window of the car. It shattered the glass, and the driver fell, dead. I fired another shot at the guy on the motorcycle.

The gunshots ceased. I sprinted to the car. There was nobody in there, so I dug through the containers in the car until I found bandages. I ran back to Jarrett and gave him the bandages. Alexa was crouched beside him. She took them from Jarrett and applied them on his hand. I then went to Logan. I told him to follow me, and we walked over to the car. We found tools, a pistol, (with no ammo) and some medicine. Then we popped the hood and started taking out parts. "We can use these to repair our car." Logan said. I nodded, and walked over to Alexa and Jarrett. "Is he okay?" I asked Alexa. She said, "He lost a lot of blood, but he will be okay. Alexa and I half led, half carried Jarrett to the RV. We put him in the RV's bed. At the sight of the bandages and blood, Kate ran over. "What happened? Is he okay? Is Logan okay?" She pelted us with questions. When she finished saying 'Is Logan okay' I grinned. "Looks like someone has a crush." "No way!" She protested. But he's our driver!" I nodded. "Suuuuuuure. But yes, he's okay." Kate smiled and nodded her head. Then she ran to the back of the RV to tell the others what happened. I walked back with her. When I got there, Kate was finishing the story. "Hi guys!" I smiled at them. "Hi Maddy!" Kate, Renee, Matisse, and Kristen replied at the same time. "Wow," I said, "It sounds like you're mentally connected." They grinned. "Well," Renee started, "When this thing started, we were all together. We think alike now."

"Yes, yes you were. I found you all together. Would anyone like to tell me the story?" Everyone turned to look at Megan. Megan took a deep breath, and started her story.


	7. Chapter 6

6

Megan's Story

"The lock clicked as I finished swirling the combo and opened my locker, grabbing my leadership folder. I gently placed my teal Vera Bradley backpack into my locker, followed by my purple juice box lunchbox I had got in 7th grade. "Hey Megs!" Kate smiled from her chair. "Hey Kate!" I squealed and jumped into my seat right next to her, I glanced to the seat on my other side where Maddy should be. "Yah, Madds isn't here yet." Renee rolled her eyes, which of course had a purple eyeliner and eye shadow on. "I bet she's seeing that movie." I replied rolling my eyes. "She is, she texted me that." Kate replied. "What movie?" Kristen asked, as she sat down next to where Maddy should sit. "That stupid apocalypse movie." I said. "OMG! I saw that last night and it was soooo good!" Matisse announced as she sat down in her chair. "Well that would explain the bags under your eyes." Kristen said jokingly. "You can see them?!" Matisse gasped. "I spent a whole hour on my makeup!" "We're joking Matisse!" I said rolling my eyes. "You are your normal beautiful self."

"Guess who?" A voice said, hands covered my eyes."Hey Luke!" I squealed. "Hey." He said as he kissed my head and sat down behind me. "Mrs. Couper is on her way." He said right before she walked in. "Good morning!" We all greeted. "Go ahead and talk. You have the next ten minutes." She allowed. I turned around immediately to face Luke. "I can't wait for our date this weekend!" Luke started to talk happily. "I know, I have a surprise for you!" Then his tone of voice dropped and he mumbled "I would kiss you if we weren't in school."I smiled and started to reply but I was cut off by an announcement. "All teachers turn on channel 7!" The principal ordered through the PTA system. "Okay...shush class." Mrs. Couper ordered as she turned on the TV. "Reports of attacks have been bursting through the roof! Apparently the beginning of a "so called" zombie apocalypse has started! Go to all the big cities for safety!" A lady on the news read off her script, eyes widening at what she just read. "This must be a jo-" I said to Kate. I suddenly drifted off.

"Hmmmm what?" I said waking up. "Megan! Wake up!" Kate shook me. "Holy fudge what's happening!" I screamed over the alarms, every alarm was going off. "There was a sighting of a walker here! We have to get out!" Matisse, Kristen, and Renee all replied. "Where's Luke?" I asked worried. "He already left! Mrs. Couper left too!" Kate screamed. "Let's go!" We all bundled together and slowly looked out the door. All clear. But the safety doors were all closed and locked up. We looked for anyone else but no one was in here. But there was a broken window in all the rooms, an exit!"We are going to have to jump!" Kristen yelled.

"Damn it! Stupid day to wear heels!" Matisse muttered as she jumped straight down. "Me next!" I plunged straight down, landing in a bush. Seconds later Renee landed next to me, then Kate, then Kristen. We seemed to all silently agree to go as we all formed a tight circle, shuffling around. Cars were gone and sirens blared all around us but suddenly stopped. "Which is better, scary silent or unbelievably loud?" Matisse asked as she fumbled with her high heel, which she had broken from the jump. "Loud." We all agreed in a whisper. "I'd rather be followed by a few zombies then get shot, mistaken for a zombie than turned into one." I replied. "Or walker as Maddy would have called them." We wandered around our school and nearby it not quite sure of what to do. We didn't talk; we were too busy thinking of all the things we could lose. Our family, our friends, our loved ones, Luke in my case. "We need to get to shelter; I don't know is we should trust Detroit..." Kristen finally broke the silence. "We should check Maddy's neighborhood then." I replied. "If she isn't there or anyone, we can just go to Kate and Renee's." "Okay, let's go." Renee agreed.

Kristen and Kate talked silently to each other in the front, Renee and I did the same in the middle. Matisse fiddled with her broken high heels as she walked bare foot in the back. We turned a corner and that was when we realized that we were nowhere near Maddy's house. "Dang it!" Kristen hissed. "I swear Maddy's house was this way!" Renee groaned. "Well lets go check that pharmacy for a map. It's worth a try." I replied. "Matisse, can you stay here as a look out?" I started walking forward towards the building with the rest of the group. "Matisse?" I asked. "Matisse did you hear me?" I asked again after the silence, spinning around. "MATISSE?!" I screamed as I noticed she wasn't there. Or anywhere near us.

"Where did she go?" Kate asked worried. "She couldn't have gone far. Let's go look for her." "Umm change of plans guys. I suggest screaming and running..." Kristen replied pointing at the pharmacy door. "Why?" Renee asked inching closer to the door. "WALKERS!" She screamed as the door opened, a hoard of walkers approached us.

Renee was immediately in trouble, three walkers approached her, she screamed louder and kicked one away, dazing it. It then got up and began walking towards us. Kristen began spinning and screaming as two zombies circled her. Kate was jumping as one attempted to grab her shoes. I screamed as I backed up, hitting a wall. I felt something cold hit my ankle. A hand. I screamed and kicked it back with my other foot. I felt the same sensation on my arm and continued to scream and push the zombies. Suddenly the pharmacy door opened and a person ran out, a pipe in his hand, the other pulling tightly at his hoodie. "Help me first!" Renee screamed as the zombie got dangerously close to biting her. The person stabbed the zombie with his pipe, it fell on the other zombie. Renee tripped the zombie that was attacking her sister and somehow not being the normal goody two shoes, smashed his head into the ground. Kate ran to help me as we both tripped one zombie and kicked them. They fell down, unconscious.

"Hurry. Follow me." The stranger said in a deep voice. We nodded and chased after him. He never slowed down or even stumbled as he ran. We slowly spaced out but we always managed to push ourselves to keep up with the stranger. I attempted to get closer to him to see his face but his hoodie was pulled tightly around his face and he pushed harder when he sensed me getting closer. We arrived in a nice neighborhood, I knew someone who lived here I just couldn't figure it out. "Ring the doorbell to that house, three times, then knock to the tune of Shave and a Hair Cut. A kid younger than us should open the door." The stranger said in a fake deep tone. "Shave and a hair cut?" Renee asked confused. "Yah, it's that knocking tune." Kristen replied. "The one that goes dut dut dutdutdut dut dut." I replied. "Hey, what's your name?" I said turning around to where the stranger was. "Moooaaannnn." A zombie replied, his arms stretched out, head sideways, leg dragging. "Quick! To the kids house!" I screamed turning to run, smacking straight into another zombie. "Cant! We are surrounded by the zombies we crashed into at the pharmacy!" Renee cried out.

I glanced back at the zombies and saw the shoe prints from us and one of them had a pipe wound in its arm. I ducked as one leaned forward and turned, my leg stretched out to knock the zombie into the other. He came crashing down into to the other zombie, his open mouth but hard into the others skull as it fell. I rolled and hardly missed them falling. I stood up and smashed my foot right into both zombies faces. "Megan! Behind you!"Renee screamed as she ducked and kicked the zombie. I turned and came face to face with a zombie. I ducked and kicked it. "Help!"I screamed to no one in particular as another zombie grabbed my arm. The door of the kids house slammed open. I glanced up as I whirled my hand a punched the zombie on my arm, at the same time kicking the other zombie. Glancing at the nearest house, I saw a girl jump off the roof of a building, and she was heading straight towards Kate. A boy was following her. I recognized the girl.

"Maddy!" I cried."


	8. Chapter 7

7

When Megan finished her story, everyone sat in silence. "Wow," I murmured, "You went through so much." Megan nodded. Then Renee broke the silence. "Yah, but it was worth it! We found you." Kate laughed, and playfully punched me in the arm. Kristen laughed and joined in. Within seconds, all my friends were punching me. "Um… why are you guys punching me?" "Cuz we're all together again. We all hugged each other.

"That was pretty fun guys, but I should get back to Logan. He may need my help." When I walked out of the back room, I saw Alexa sitting with Jarrett. "How's he doing?" "Better, but he needs his sleep." I nodded. "You stay in here with him. I'll bring Megan, Kate and Renee back to the car. Logan will drive the RV." Then a thought struck me. "Actually," I continued, "I'll drive the motorcycle! I'll ask Megan to drive the car." I walked back to the back room. "Hey Megan?" "Yes Maddy?" "Would you like to drive the car?" "Sure!" Megan agreed. "Hmmmm…" She continued, "Three people can come with me, but there are four others here." Then Matisse said, "I'll stay here. I can go meet Alexa and Jarrett better." "Okay Matisse." Megan said, "I'll take Kate, Renee, and Kristen with me. Then they all walked out of the back room.

"Bye Matisse." I said to her as I exited the back room. I walked to Alexa and said goodbye to her as well, then I hopped out of the RV. I walked over to Logan, who had dirt and oil all over his face and clothes. "How's the car looking Logan?" I asked him. He replied, "It's doing great! Not only did I fix it, but I made it more fuel efficient!" I thanked him for the great work and told him about the driving situation. Then my voice lowered. "You know… I just killed those people, and I'm already stealing their motorcycle." Logan's gaze hardened as he looked at me. "You did what was necessary. They would have killed us. They shot Jarrett in the hand!" I looked at Logan. "I did what was necessary, but did I do what was right?" His mouth closed. He didn't talk, and the silence lasted a few minutes. "Well," I broke the silence, "I'm off to the motorcycle." I pushed the dead body off the seat, and wiped the blood off the handlebars.

An engine started up. Logan drove the RV in front, then Megan drove the car behind, and I drove the motorcycle in the back of the group. Within a few minutes, we reached some strange mountains. I sped up and passed the car and RV. I honked and they started to follow me. I wove in between the mountains. Logan stopped the RV and stuck his head out the window. "It will never make it! It's too wide!" "That's what she said!" I hollered to Logan, and continued. He murmured something like 'She'll get us all killed,' but I continued driving.

When we passed the mountains, there was a forest. Logan, Megan, and I continued driving. After the forest, there was a clearing. The clearing was the size of a football field. In the middle, there was a large hill. If we were on the hill, we could see all around us. I drove up the hill, and stopped. Logan and Megan stopped too. Logan hopped out of the RV. "This is the place…" He whispered to himself. I said to Logan, "Do you mind keeping watch? I'd like to scout the surrounding area." He nodded and walked into the RV. I hopped back onto my motorcycle, and drove off.


	9. Chapter 8

8

With my hunting jacket, my python, my sword, and my bow on me, I stopped in front of a cabin. _This must have been a campground…_ I shuddered. I called, "Hello?!" There was no answer. I opened the door, and it slammed behind me.

"Who's there?!" A voice called. I replied, "I'm Maddy! I mean no harm!" A man came running down the hall, holding a shotgun. Behind him, there was a girl, and a child. "I'm Maddy…" I repeated. The man lowered his shotgun. "I'm Aron. This is my wife, Maggie… And this little boy here is my son, Carl." I nodded and stuck out my hand. "Nice to meet you Aron. I have a group a little ways away. Is it just you three here?" At the mention of a group, Aron's eyes shone. "Yes, we're all that's left. Could we join your group? It's not safe here." _Why isn't it safe? They have shelter, and I haven't seen a walker yet._ "Well, of course you can join our group. Pack what you need and come outside." "Uh… we don't have anything to pack. We're ready.

I led them to the motorcycle. All four of us barely fit on it, but we managed to drive off. "So, Aron," I started, "Is your cabin the only one here? If not, I could search for other survivors." Aron shook his head. "No need to search, that's the only cabin for a hundred miles." Then Carl whispered something in Aron's ear. Aron tapped my shoulder. "Could you stop the motorcycle?" I nodded, and stopped. Aron and Carl hopped out. "Where are you going?" I asked. "Carl has to pee." Aron said. "Daaaaad!" Carl protested. He ran into the woods. "Carl!" Aron yelled. He ran after Carl. At that moment, I heard a scream. I immediately leaped off the motorcycle and ran after the father and son. A walker was approaching Carl, who was pressed against a tree. Aron sped towards the walker. He bashed the walker with his shoulder, and tackled it. He sat on the walker, and started punching its head.

At that moment, another walker stepped out of the bushes behind him. The walker that Aron was beating stopped thrashing. Aron stood up, and the walker behind him bit his shoulder. "ARON!" I hollered. Aron yelled and elbowed the walker. The walker snarled and knocked Aron over. I pulled out my bow, and shot at the walker.

I was too far away. The arrow landed several feet in front of the walker. I ran faster. I shot the arrow into its skull, right when the walker ripped Aron's neck open.


	10. Chapter 9

9

"DADDY!" Carl screamed as he ran towards his father. "Carl! No!" I yelled. Maggie sprinted out of the bushes, right at Carl. She scooped him up in her arms. She scanned the clearing. Her eyes froze when they reached Aron. Her eyes teared up as she saw the puddle of blood he was laying in.

"M-Maggie? Carl?" He whispered, and then winced when he tilted his head to look at them. "Dad!" Carl yelled. He wriggled out of Maggie's grasp and ran over to his dying father. Maggie ran after him. Aron whispered, "I love you," to them. His gaze shifted and I saw that he was staring at me with his dimming eyes. "Protect them," he whispered. Then his vision clouded and his short, shallow breaths ceased.

"Maggie, take Carl to the motorcycle." I demanded. She nodded, and stumbled towards the motorcycle, sobbing. The moment she disappeared into the bushes, I kneeled down to Aron. "I'm sorry." I said to his lifeless body. I reached into my jacket and pulled out a jagged knife blade. I glanced around to make sure nobody was watching, and then lodged the knife into his forehead. There was a sickening crunch, and then silence. Even the birds stopped singing. I shuffled back to the motorcycle, with my hands in my pockets. I nodded at Maggie. "Get on," I mumbled as I started it up. Sitting on the motorcycle, we drove off. We reached camp with no problem, besides the fact that Maggie and Carl had just lost their family. I had hoped to come back to camp, seeing everyone working together on the new home, smiles on their faces as they thought of the new future.

I came back to the total opposite.

Jarrett was pacing around the clearing. He was screaming something. I listened in. "….DEAD! SHE'S DEAD!" Maggie and Carl hopped off the motorcycle, and I did the same. I ran over to Kate. "What happened!" I questioned her. She looked worried and replied, "Matisse is an idiot!" "Tell me something I don't know!" I replied. She sighed. "No… Alexa went home to see if her family was okay… and the only person she told was Matisse. She told Jarrett, and he's flipping out! He thinks she might be-" She was cut off by Jarrett yelling: "GET AWAY FROM ME! NO, I'M NOT ALRIGHT!" I spun around to look at him. Logan had tried to comfort him, and now Jarrett is pointing a sword at Logan's face. Wonderful! I started running towards them. "Watch them!" I yelled to Kate, and pointed at Maggie and Carl. Then I ran faster to Jarrett. "Jarrett! STOP!" He turned to look at me. His eyes were full of tears, and they were streaming down his face. "But she's gone, Maddy." I shook my head. "No. I left an hour ago, and she had still been here. How far can she get in an hour?" Jarrett's eyes filled with hope and he shrugged. Not THAT far! She went on foot! She might be okay!" "Which way is her house?" I asked him. He pointed in a direction. "That way." Then he pulled out a ripped map and put it in my hands. He pointed to the clearing. "We're here." Then his finger shifted to a neighborhood. "Alexa lives here."

I looked at the map in shock. Alexa's house was right by my house. Two blocks away. Not only could I save Alexa, but I could go home.


	11. Chapter 10

10

A full day has passed from my last encounter with the group. After Jarrett had given me the map, I packed up and drove off. I had my crossbow, a few knives, my sword, a python, and a rifle. I also had my backpack, which had enough food and water to last for a few weeks. That was the highlight. The downfall came soon after. After a full day, my motorcycle has run out of gas. I probably should have filled it up awhile ago, but I had forgotten. I scanned the area I was stranded in. I was pretty close to the neighborhood, which was a relief, considering that I had been driving for a day.

I had not seen signs of Alexa. I really hoped that she was at her house, all safe, and not out here and… a walker. I looked around the few houses. I let out a sigh of relief when I saw a few gas tanks in an abandoned garage. I lifted them and carried them to my motorcycle. I filled it all the way, and took the remaining tank. I placed it in the compartment under the seat, in case I needed it later. I went in the house, and searched around. I didn't find anything useful, aside a can of pop. I drank the whole thing. It would surprise you how great pop tastes in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.

When I had finished, I got back on my motorcycle, and started to drive. Within minutes, I reached the entrance of the neighborhood. Brook Oak. I looked around. It was quiet. Eerie quiet. Something was wrong. I continued driving, looking at the map. I hit a pothole and my motorcycle flipped. I flew through the air, and landed on my back. "Owwww," I mumbled. I looked to my right and saw Alexa's house. I struggled to stand up, and I fell again. The world started spinning, and I felt dizzy. The last thing I saw was a fuzzy shape come out from a doorway. Then everything went black.

I woke up. I don't know if I was out for a hour, or maybe even a day. My eyes opened and I saw Alexa. "Alexa! You're okay!" She spun around and grinned. "Well, you're not." I put my hand up to my head. It came away sticky and red. Alexa said, "I'll go grab a bandage." She appeared a moment later with a strip of cloth. She wrapped it around my head. "Hey Alexa," I started. "You know, when you left, Jarrett flipped out and tried to kill Logan." Her eyes flew open. "Is he okay?!" "Yeah. Jarrett didn't actually kill Logan-" She cut me off. "No! I don't care about Logan! I mean; is Jarrett okay?!" "Oh" I started laughing. "Yeah. He's okay." She smiled. "Good." I asked Alexa, "So, what about your family?" Her smile fell. "I didn't find anything. They weren't here." "Oh. Sorry…" I said to her.

She was about to reply, but we heard a crash outside. Alexa jumped up. She crept over to the nearest window. I followed. She grinned. "It's just one. I can take it." She walked out the back door. I heard a thump and then a crash. I spun around and saw a walker coming at me through a broken window. I pulled out my knife. It ran closer, and I stuck the knife in the front of its head. It fell limp and toppled over. I ran to the window and looked outside. There were walkers EVERYWHERE! They were coming out of the woods. I ran out to find Alexa. I saw her swinging her sword at a walker. Another walker was coming up behind her. "Alexa! Behind you!" I yelled. She swung around and the walker fell.

I ran next to Alexa. She hissed to me, "Follow me!" She ran down a path. I sprinted after her. "Alexa!" I yelled, "If we get split up, meet me at my house! She turned to look at me while running. I saw her mouth move, but I couldn't hear what she said. At that moment, a horde of walkers cut her off. She changed direction, and more walkers came up behind her. "Alexa!" I yelled. The horde closed in, and I couldn't see Alexa anymore. I felt a tear drop down my face, and I started running in the other direction. I was sprinting to my house. If my family was there, then I had to get them out of the neighborhood.

A walker crossed my path. It growled, and its fingers reached out for me. While running, I yanked out my sword and slashed the side of its head. It fell to the ground, motionless. I continued running. Now I was only half a block away. Right in front of me, was a horde of walkers. I spun to look behind me. There were no walkers there. I quickly pulled out my rifle. I aimed at the first ones head. I fired, and it fell. I quickly shifted to the second walker. I fired. I fired off two more rounds, and most of the walkers were dead. I walked over to the remaining walker. I bashed the back of my rifle right in the walkers head. There was a squishing sound, and the walker went limp. I walked cautiously back to my house. I approached the driveway. There was no sound anywhere. The front door was open. _That's not a good sign…_ I thought. I walked in. "Hello?!" I called out. There was no answer. I ran into my parents' room. "Mom? Dad?!" I yelled. Once again, there was no answer. "Mom! Dad! Jack! It's me, Maddy! Why won't you answer…" I fell to my knees, and started sobbing. They weren't here. I ran into the kitchen. Sparty, my dog, wasn't there either. Something caught my eye .

I walked over to the kitchen counter. There was a note there. I picked it up, and started reading. It read: "Maddy, if you are reading this, know we are okay. After the second day of you being gone, we had to get out of here. We took the silver car and we are on our way to New York. They said the cities would be protected. We left you the dark car, in case you and anyone else you find can come. We hope you are okay. We miss you. ~Jen, Shawn, and Jack

PS: We took Sparty too J"

I reread the note twice. They're alive! Or, they were at least when they wrote this. I stuffed the note into my pocket. I walked up the stairs and I walked to my room. I opened up my junk drawer and pulled out my two pocketknives. I stuffed them in my backpack. I continued searching my room for any useful items. I grabbed a few random things: a deck of cards, a pair of scissors, and a screwdriver. I grabbed some books too, in case I would need them. I flopped down on my bed. I wished that I could just wake up and this whole thing would be a dream. I opened my eyes and I heard a thump. I nearly jumped at the sound, and I crept over to my window to see what was happening. Outside, there was a car, and a few walkers were attacking it. I saw some people inside. I sprinted downstairs and out the door, grabbing my backpack on the way.

I pulled out my sword as I approached the car. One of the walkers shuffled around to face me. Its eyes were dark and lifeless, and it started to run at me. I used my sword to pierce it right in the eye. It stumbled, and then fell to the ground. Another walker Shuffled towards me with a moan. With one swipe of my sword, it dropped to the ground in a crumpled heap. I quickly leaped to the last walker, which was breaking the car window and reaching its hands inside. I whistled two notes, and it spun to look at me. Then I slashed its head, and it immediately fell. I hurriedly opened the car door. "Everyone alright?!" I yelled. Then I noticed who the people were. My eyes flew open in shock. "Mitch? Katie? Cole?" I whispered. "Maddy!" Mitch yelled. He crawled out of the back seat of the car, freaking out about the glass shards. Yup, that's Mitch! Then Katie ran out of the passenger door and gave me a giant hug. I returned it. Cole climbed out of the driver's seat. I didn't know him very well, and he kinda just stood there awkwardly. "I'm so glad you guys are okay!" I said excitedly to them. Katie replied with a, "You too!" Then I said to them, "Hurry, let's go inside." I opened up the front door and walked inside, as Katie, Cole, and Mitch shuffled behind me.

"So," I started, "How did you guys get here? And what happened to your car?" It looked like they thought about how to reply, and then Katie and Cole just started staring at Mitch. His face turned red and he began to talk. "Well, we heard that New York was safe… and I read the map wrong and we got lost. The car, well… Thanks to Cole's GREAT driving, we crashed into a building, and then the motor gave out soon after." I grinned. "Nice going guys!" I said sarcastically. Katie started to laugh, and even Cole smirked.

I told them about the group, about all of the people. Katie was ecstatic when she heard that Logan was there. She was glad he was alive. She was slightly less happy when she learned that our only transportation was a motorcycle. "How are all four of us going to fit?!" She exclaimed. Then she added, "Uh oh Mitch, you might fall off!" Mitch's face looked worried. "And," Katie continued, "You'll have to be close to all of us, because we all have to fit on one motorcycle!" Then Mitch shuddered and mumbled, "Germs!" Everyone started laughing.

I nudged Mitch. "C'mon, it'll be fine." He looked at me, and then he crawled on. Cole and Katie followed. I got on the front, and started it up. I looked at the map. "Lots of walkers this way…" I pointed to the spot where I last saw Alexa. "So we have to take a detour… maybe this route?" I dragged my finger over to the high school and around a police station, and finally back to camp. Katie nodded. "looks good to me." Then I started driving.


	12. Chapter 11

11

We drove for two hours. It was a rough drive, with walkers at every turn. This area was not safe. I drove faster, trying to outrun our followers. I felt Mitch shudder behind me as he pointed to the East. There was a hill covered in dead bodies. Then they started moving. I quickly turned the motorcycle to avoid that area. I pulled up to the High school. The lights were shut off outside, but there was a faint glow inside. "Guys," I whispered, "Maybe we can take refugee there." Then I noticed how quickly the sun was setting. "Besides… it's getting dark." I parked the motorcycle and all four of us hopped off in unison. We started jogging towards the school. A gunshot rang out, and I ducked. More followed. I waved my hands. "Stop! Stop! We're not walkers!" I hollered. A man with dark brown hair with gray flecks stood up, on the high school roof. "We know that!" He yelled. "That's why we're shooting!" I quickly replied, "Don't! We can leave!" I turned around and ran. I heard a laugh, and the man yelled, "You think we will let you get away and tell your friends about us?! Well, I think not!" Then he signaled to a few people behind him. "Fire boys!" Then the parking lot was turned into a bloody mess.

The first few shots hit the pavement, but the next few nearly hit me. I dove behind a car, and Katie followed. "Where's Cole and Mitch?!" I yelled over the gunfire. Then I saw Cole stumble behind another car, and Mitch was with him. I signaled towards the motorcycle, and then sprinted to it. Everyone ran after me. The gunshots became faster and closer. I hurriedly started the motorcycle. When everyone was on, I sped off.

We drove for awhile in silence. Katie broke it, and said, "That was close…" I nodded, and I imagined Mitch and Cole doing the same. I stopped. "We're out of gas. Cole groaned. "Great! We have people who want to kill us on our tail, and we are stuck without gas. I laughed, only halfheartedly. "Oh joy! Sounds fun!" I said sarcastically. Mitch laughed, and then winced. I was concerned. "Mitch? You okay?" He nodded, but he was on the verge of tears. His hand was covering his arm awkwardly, and it was red. I quickly moved his hand. There was a hole in his arm, and it was heavily bleeding. "You got shot, didn't you?!" I yelled. His head drooped and he nodded. I pulled out my crossbow. "Great. Now wait here. I'm going back for medical supplies." "No! I'm fine! Don't go! You'll get killed…" He must have realized that nothing was going to change my mind, and his head fell further. "I'll be fine." I said to him. He raised his head and looked into my eyes. "Be careful." He whispered. I nodded, and started running back the way we had come.


	13. Chapter 12

12

Within an hour, I had arrived. I came upon the high school, and scanned the parking lot. I didn't see anyone. There was nobody on the roof either. I crept over to the front door, but the second I touched it, an alarm went off. "Crap!" I hissed as I let go of the door and started running.

I had a flashback of last year. I always snuck off in the middle of class to go watch movies. I only did it when there was a movie I really wanted to see. There were cameras everywhere in the school, but I had found a route that had none. I had climbed out a window and down a tree, and I would come back the same way. Nobody ever found out how I had done it. That had given me an idea. My mind started working like crazy. I had set off an alarm at the front of the school. They would all rush to the front to try and guard, so I could climb in the back window. It was brilliant! I snuck through the shadows, and reached my window. I climbed up the first branch, and then yanked down a rope, which I had placed there previously. I started climbing up to the window, when two men came running in my direction. I pulled up the rope and ducked in the tree. I picked up part of their conversation. "…Can't have gone far… add extra patrols in main entrance… the intruder can't get in…" They glanced around, and then walked back to the front of the school.

When they went out of sight, I continued climbing, and I grinned. _They know nothing about this entrance, and they wouldn't expect me to come through a window on the second floor._ I reached the top, and hopped in through the window. My eyes flew open in shock. How lucky was I? I just happened to come in their food storage room!

I slowly opened the door to the room. There were two guards, both facing the opposite direction. I shut the door silently, and looked around the room. My eyes fell on each object in that room, and then I pulled out my bag. I silently stepped to the closest table. It was covered in canned goods, all stacked up in piles. I shoved all the cans in my bag, and moved to the next table. This one was covered in packaged goods. I crammed around half of the contents into my bag, but I couldn't fit anymore. I grabbed a bag of noodles on the table and crept back to the door. I opened it, threw the bag down the hall, and closed the door back up. I heard a voice say, "This way," and two sets of footsteps run down the hall. I smiled and exited the doorway. I ran the other way down the hall, towards the school nurse's office. Something fell to the ground next to me, and I wondered if it fell out of my bags' front pocket. I didn't stop to pick it up though, and I regret it. I kept running, until I was where I needed to be. I quietly closed the door, and searched the room. There was a desk, a first aid kit, and a box full of random medications. I threw the top off the lid and looked for some pain relievers, or at least something that would come in handy. I moved the desk against the door, so I could search.

I kept on searching. The door handle moved, and I froze. Someone started frantically pounding on the door. Whoever was on the other side started yelling. "I FOUND THE INTRUDER! IT'S STEALING OUR SUPPLIES!" "Oh cheese-its…" I whispered. There was no time to search for what I needed. I just dumped the whole box into the first aid kit. I grabbed the handle of it. There was a splintering sound, and an axe blade appeared in the door. _Someone is chopping it down!_

I quickly realized what I had to do. As quick as a flash, I pulled out my python and fired at the closest window. It shattered. The chopping ceased for a moment, but then continued as I put the gun away. I grabbed the first aid kit and ran to the window. I crawled out of it and started running. The door swung open and the man ran to the window. "We will find you! And now we know your name! Madison!" I swung around to see him holding a piece of plastic. The thing I had dropped in the hallway.

It was my nametag.


	14. Chapter 13

13

_Oh no,_ my mind raced as I sprinted through the trees. _No, no, no._ How could I have let them find out who I was? How stupid was I? I tripped over a log and sprawled over on the ground. "Owwww…" I moaned. My vision faded, as I saw a blurry shape appear above my head. Then my world went black.

I slowly opened my eyes. Light streamed in, as I frantically searched around. I was laying on a makeshift bed made out of an air mattress and a blanket. I looked down at my arms to see that they were covered in bandages. I looked to my right. There was the motorcycle! _That must mean…_ I looked up, only to see that Mitch was staring down at me. I grinned. "Hey." His eyes glowed with anger and he yelled, "I told you not to go! I found you half dead in the woods! You could have been killed!" "But I didn't." "That doesn't make it okay!" I frowned. "Sorry… but how's your arm?" He thrust it out for me to see. The blood had been washed off and there was a bandage covering his arm. "Can I…" I asked. "Yeah." He replied. I slowly pried off the bandage. The gun wound was bad, but not as bad as it could have been. It hadn't hit anything important. His arm would still work. I glanced at his arm, and looked at mine. "We make a pretty picture, don't we." I grinned. He laughed. "Yeah." There was a moment when our eyes met, but I quickly turned away. "So… Where are the others?" "Sleeping. It's like, five in the morning." I nodded. My thought drifted back to last night. I saw the med kit… I ran off… But I was forgetting something. I jolted and sat up.

"We need to get out of here. NOW!" The smile faded from Mitch's face. "What? Why?" I quickly told the story of the previous night. Fear filled his gaze. "I'll wake the others…" He whispered. I jumped up, and started deflating the air mattress. I lifted it up, and I winced. I removed a bandage from my arm to see that my wounds were pretty bad. I gritted my teeth and got on with the work. Katie and Cole ran over. They looked bewildered, and extremely startled. The look on Mitch's face made me think that they had been making out or something. I grinned, but immediately frowned again. "Get on." I said to them. They hopped on, carrying all of their supplies. I quickly jumped on the front, and started the motorcycle up.

I took one last look behind me, to see one lone walker. It was running at us, waving its' arms, and moaning. I looked at it from head to toe. The Katana sword with the golden blade, the camouflage clothing, and the same haunting blue eyes. There was no mistaking who it was. I drove away, tears streaming down my face, because the walker chasing us had used to be my friend. It was Alexa.


	15. Chapter 14

14

We drove in silence until nightfall. We were only a few miles away from the base. I wound through the mountains, keeping an eye behind me. A few times I swore I saw something, but there was never anything there. I drove through the forest, and approached the hill. I pulled up next to the RV. Logan was sitting on the RV with a shotgun, keeping watch. "Maddy!" He yelled. He grinned and ran over. He immediately recognized Katie, from all the time we had spent together before this started. "Katie!" He called, and he ran to give her a hug. Cole stood there watching, awkwardly. "Who's that?" He asked. Katie grinned. "That's Cole." Logan's eyes widened. "THE Cole?" Then he ran to Cole. "Katie talks about you all the time! Always telling stories-" "Logan!" Katie yelled. A crooked smile crossed Logan's face. "Sorry.

"Who's he?" Logan pointed over at Mitch. "And what's with the bandage? Was he bit?" I stepped forward. "That's Mitch. And no, he got shot. But he's okay now." "Yikes." Logan mumbled. Then he continued, "And speaking of wounds, what the heck happened to you?" He laughed, Mitch frowned, and I grinned. "I had a close call with some branches on the forest floor when I blacked out."

He nodded, looking confused. I decided not to tell the story, so he wouldn't be worried. He grabbed me by the arm. "Maddy, you need to see this." He led me to the RV. He opened the door, and climbed inside. "Well, we have a few problems." He pointed at the one bed in the RV. Everyone was crammed in it, some people were on the floor, and one person was even sprawled across the table. They were sleeping, and they all looked exhausted. "But that's not all." Logan whispered. He led me to the driver seat and closed the door. He let out a sigh, and opened his blue backpack. It contained lots of candy wrappers, and six cans of nasty soup. "So?" I asked. Logan frowned at me. "That's all we have left." My eyes widened with shock. "We had so much food! How did it run out?" He replied, "Yes, we had a lot of food, but we have a lot of people too. There's me, you, Kate (I swear, hearts appeared in his eyes when he said her name), Renee, Megan, Matisse, Jarrett, Kristen, Maggie, Carl, and you brought Katie, Cole, and Mitch… And there's Alexa." Then shock covered his face. "Alexa… she wasn't with you." I dropped my head. "Alexa… I saw her, we tried to escape, we did. But…" I cut off, Logan understood. A tear fell down his face. "How will we tell Jarrett… and the others were growing fond of her too."

I ran outside. "Guys, get inside. I'll be there in a minute." I walked to the motorcycle. I reached for the bags we had. I could barely carry them, they were so full. I walked back inside, and handed the bags to Logan. "Hey Cole!" I called. "Could you go take watch for a minute?" He nodded, and walked outside. I walked back to Logan. "Okay, I have lots of food in here." We dumped them out. He grinned. "Looks like we won't starve after all!" He shoved some of the other items in my backpack. I still had my comic books, my plans, a few weapons. I gave him the weapons in my backpack. "Where do these go?" I asked. He pulled out a drawer, and shoved them in. I pulled open my jacket. I had an array of knives in one side, and on the other side I had my python and my AK-47. Over my jacket, I had a sling of arrows. There was a little compartment on it for my crossbow. I also had used my belt to make myself a makeshift sword sling. I was ready for anything.

I opened up the next backpack. I pulled out the med pack. I shoved it in another drawer. Logan looked at it, and grinned. "Maddy, you must have killed somebody to get this." I frowned. "I almost did." He quickly changed the subject. "So, about Alexa-" He was cut off by a gunshot. Everyone jolted from their sleep. They sat up. I quickly ran outside, and everyone followed me. Cole was slumped over on the ground, a bloody mess covering his head. Katie screamed and ran over. I quickly pulled out my AK. Calculating where Cole landed, angle of the bullet hitting him, I fired a shot where I thought the bullet had come from. I fired right in a tree. A branch snapped, and someone fell out of the tree. I ran over. I was filled with shock. It was the man from the hospital!

I gripped him by the coat collar. He was wearing a black leather coat, and my bullet was lodged right in his side. He gasped for air. "HOW MANY MORE! HOW MANY MORE!" I screamed at him. "One…" Then he drew in a shallow breath and slumped over. I looked back in the tree. Nobody there. I ran in the woods. I tripped over a bush, and looked closer. It wasn't a bush! It was a foot! I yanked his foot. "Ow!" He yelled. Then he looked up and saw me. Oh Shi-" I slammed my foot down on his chest. He attempted to point his shotgun at me, but I slapped it away. I moved my foot onto his neck. He gasped for air, and his face turned purple. I lifted my foot. He breathed again, but he immediately passed out. I ripped off his similar leather jacket. It had a knife in it. I patted him down. He had a pistol in his boot, but otherwise, there were no other weapons on him. I picked up his body and dragged him near the RV. Logan was standing with an expression of shock on his face, Katie was sobbing next to Cole, and everyone else was huddling near the door to the RV, unsure of what to do. Another gunshot rang in my ears. I jumped up and pulled out my python. Another shot rang out, and my gun was sent flying. The leader of the hospital was standing there. His hair was sticking up, and it was dark gray. His face was twisted into a look of anger. He was wearing another black leather jacket, but his had a red star on the front. What struck me the most were his eyes. They were bloodred, and they seemed to stare right through me. I took one step towards my gun. He fired a shot above his head.

"One more step, and I blow blondie to bits!" He barked at me. I froze. His pistol was aiming right at Logan's' head. _What do I do!_ My brain was screaming at me. Then something caught my vision. A gold shoelace peeked out of a bush. A shadow appeared out of the darkness. It raised its' gold katana, and a beam of light hit its' face. Correction- _Her_ face. Alexa was alive! I smiled, but alerted the man. He spun around, but it was too late. Alexa's sword blade slashed right through the top of his head. His glowing red eyes faded, and he stumbled to the ground. He fired off one last gunshot, I think it was just his hand falling on the trigger, and we were engulfed in the silence.


	16. Chapter 15

15

Logan finally broke it. "Alexa!" He yelled. He sprinted over. He grabbed her hands and looked in her eyes. "I thought you were dead!" Then he leaned forward and kissed her. "WHAT!" Three people yelled in unison. One came from Jarrett, who already had his sword out, and started running at Logan. Another came from Alexa, who immediately had pushed Logan away. The third was Kate, who seemed irritated that Logan had just went obsessive over another girl. Logan turned to look at Kate, who was exaggeratingly pointing at herself. "I thought you loved _me!"_ She yelled. "I'm sorry Kate, but you don't love me back. I've given up on you-" He was cut off as Jarrett tackled him from behind. "That! Is! My! Girlfriend!" He yelled. With each word, he sent another punch to Logan. Logan's nose started to bleed. Alexa's face turned bright red. She ran to Jarrett. "It's okay, you can stop!" Jarrett's abuse to Logan ceased.

"You called me your girlfriend...?" She whispered. Jarrett stood up, and looked into her eyes. "You know I've always had feelings for you…" He replied. "Jarrett," Alexa whispered, "I love you." Then they broke out into makeout central. "Ewwwwww" Logan yelled, as he wiped the blood from his nose. "Hey!" Jarrett yelled at him, "You can shut up!" He laughed, and then went back to making out with Alexa. Logan frowned, and limped, defeated, back to the rest of us. Kate walked over to him. "Sorry you got rejected." She said to him. He shrugged. "I'm used to it. After all, I know you." Then Kate said to Logan, "Well, you don't have to worry about that anymore, because when that man pointed the gun at you, I realized that even though you're annoying and stupid, I don't want to lose you." Then she leaned forward and kissed Logan on the cheek. Logan's face turned bright red, and he immediately passed out.

I walked over to Katie. "How are you doing?" I asked her. "How do you think I'm doing?!" She replied. "Sorry." I quickly said. "But I know that you liked him, and it must suck to lose him." She looked at me. "It's not that… I stopped liking him a long time ago. But that was when he started liking me. I always wanted to tell him how I really felt, but now I never can, because he's dead! I just lost one of my best friends, and I lied to him!" She sighed, and stood up. "I really will miss him…" She whispered to me. "I know you will Katie. We all will. I'm sorry that we lost him." She nodded. "You should probably go inside," I said to her, "You should rest." She silently walked inside.

The intruder sat up. "Wh-where am I?!" He looked up at me. "Oh…" He reached for his pistol, but it wasn't there. He sighed. "Why are you keeping me here?" I looked at him. "Hello, attacker. I'm here to interrogate you." He crossed his arms over his chest. "I won't tell you anything." I pulled out my knife. "Oh, we'll see about that. I lifted his head so he could see his leader. His eyes widened. "Oh no…" He whispered. He leaped up to try to run, but I grabbed his leg and he tripped. "Okay, I need to know everything about your people. First of all, how did you find me?" His hands clenched into fists. He yelled, "We didn't! Someone recognized your name! She told us not to follow you, but we did, at a safe distance. You didn't even notice!"

"Who recognized my name?!" I whispered. He grinned. "Oh, there was this girl, and she wouldn't tell us who you were. So, we tortured her. She went insane, but we eventually got what we needed out of her." "What was her name?!" I yelled. He replied, "Some girl named Sam."

_Sam…_ I remembered her. We had been great friends before this whole thing started. "Is she alive?" I asked the man. "Yeah… but she keeps on calling herself 'mama blonde.' Yeah… she's really weird. Your nametag said your name was Maddy, but she kept on calling you 'Georgette Bobilla."

Oh crap! My mind raced back, all the way to 7th grade. Over the summer, I had invited a few friends over, and Sam had been one of them. We had made up our own movie, and we filmed it. I had been Georgette Bobilla, and she had been Mama Blonde. The character was INSANE! If Sam thinks that she's Mama Blonde… she could be in trouble.

"Alright," I said to the man, "What's your name?" He hesitated for a moment, and then replied, "Josh." I said to him, "Well, Josh, you are now our hostage. We'll bring you back, in exchange for Sam.


	17. Chapter 16

16

His eyes widened and he protested. "You can't! They'll shoot on site! They'll even kill me!" "Then that's a risk that we'll have to take." He opened his mouth, alarmed, but nothing came out. "Team, pack up. We're going back to school." I said to them. Logan nodded and turned to the team. "You heard her, go!" Everyone turned to go, except for Mitch. He walked over by me, and looked at Josh. I saw rage flash in his eyes and his fist flew forward and hit Josh square in the mouth. "That's for Cole! He was my friend!" He yelled, and then ran away. I sighed. "Mitch?!" I called after him, but he ran back into the RV.

Josh started to bleed. I ripped off part of his shirt and used it to wipe off the blood. He gave me a wicked grin with his bloody teeth. Then his eyes clouded and he passed out again. I walked inside the RV. "Everyone ready?" I asked. Logan nodded. I walked back outside and grabbed Josh. I grabbed his arms and slung him over my shoulder. Logan helped me carry him inside. I made sure he was tied up, and then put him in the back of the RV. I looked at Renee, who was nearest to me. "Get Megan, Kate, Kristen, and Matisse. Guard this _scum_, and tell me when he wakes up." I said emotionlessly to her. She nodded and walked over more towards the front of the RV to find them. I sighed, and walked over to Alexa and Jarrett, who were on the table (which we had converted into a couch), and asked her, "Are you two ready?" They nodded simultaneously.

I walked up to the driver's room. Logan was in there, and he turned to look at me. He smiled, but I could tell it was a weak, fake smile. "Hi Logan. Want me to drive?" "Nah, I will." He said to me. He started up the RV, and then I yelled, "wait!" He turned to look at me, with a confused expression. "When is the last time you've seen Maggie and Carl?!" His expression changed. "I nearly forgot about them! I think Maggie took Carl to go back to their home to grab something!" I nodded, worriedly. "Let me drive, I know where they live." I slammed on the gas, and started winding down the paths. "Wait, let me grab my motorcycle. You follow me." I jumped out the door and ran to my cycle. I started driving, and I swerved in front of the RV. Logan started following me.

I reached the home in a few minutes. I saw Maggie at the front door, holding something. "Maggie!" I yelled. She turned to look at me. "Shh!" She hissed at me, "You'll wake them." "Wake what?!" I yelled. As I drove closer I saw that she was holding a knife. Her eyes grew wild, and she let out a laugh. "You'll wake THE DEAD!" She banged on the wall, and a moaning noise rose, until the house was nearly screaming. "Where's Carl!?" I yelled to her. "He's dead! Don't you see? We're ALL dead!" A scream of a child came from the inside of the house. Maggie ran inside, and I followed. "Maggie! You're mad!" I howled over the noise. Zombies started banging on the doors all around us. I saw Carl cowering on the stairs, and walkers were stumbling down the steps. I ripped the knife out of Maggie's hands. I sprinted to Carl as quickly as I could. Right when I reached him, a walker was upon him. I slashed my knife at the back of its skull. I scooped up Carl and started running for the exit. Maggie slammed the door shut and tried to block the exit. I wildly looked around, and walkers pounded down the first door to my right. "Maggie! You don't need to do this!" But she didn't budge. I took one last look into her mad eyes, and knew what I had to do. There was a flash of silver, and then blood was splattered across the floor.

I looked down at the bloody knife that I was wielding. I looked at Maggie lying on the floor, dark maroon blood dripping from her neck, and her eyes were still open, staring wildly into mine. I could hear her voice screaming in my ears. _YOU DID THIS TO ME! YOU DID THIS!_ I swung open the front door and ran outside. I closed the door behind me and ran. I put Carl, who was crying loudly, in the RV. "Follow me Logan!" I yelled. I hopped on my cycle, and started speeding away. The front door to the house swung open and walkers hobbled out, moaning loudly. I looked back, only to see that Maggie was one of them. _You did this. It was your fault._ Her whispers seemed to follow me through the wind.


	18. Chapter 17

17

A day had passed. Aside from my short moments of insanity and fear, I was fine. My friends were too. Even Carl seemed recovered from his mother's death. _Murder_, I corrected myself. But she had been crazy, hadn't she? I wasn't sure anymore.

Anyways, back to the current scene. I was in the woods, where I had been when I had camped the last time. Near the place I nearly died. The sun was rising and the time was right. I walked to the RV and opened the door. "Everyone, out," I called. My friends all walked out. Their faces were covered in grief, and they all were exhausted. Kate and Megan were carrying Josh out, and he was mumbling, "I can walk." They threw him onto the ground and he struggled to stand up. I pulled out my knife and slit the ropes tying his feet together, but not his hands. I addressed the group. "I need some people, in case we have to fight. Logan's hand shot straight into the air. "You know that I'm coming Maddy. I wouldn't miss it for the world. I grinned at him. "Any more? Two people can't take on an army." Alexa and Jarrett stepped forward simultaneously. Reluctantly, Megan stepped forward. She was shaking and her face was red, but she slung a rifle over her shoulder and faked a smile. Kate, Renee, and Kristen followed. Matisse looked around wildly, shook her head disapprovingly, and stepped forward as well. Even Carl pulled out a little pistol and wanted to go. Mitch and Katie agreed to come.

Our whole group was coming. If we lost, we would all be dead. With Mitch on my right, Logan on my left, and my close friends behind me, we trudged off. Alexa held her katana out behind Josh, and he limped along with her, his head drooped and his legs shaky. As we came to the parking lot, I yelled out, "Cease fire!" A man ran over to peer over the roof ledge. He spotted Josh and whistled. Three other men came running.

"What do you want!?" The first man called. "Answers, and maybe a trade." I replied. The man threw down a rope and crawled down, escorted by his three friends. The four men approached, their eyes glowing like fire. "Give us Josh." A man quickly said. "In exchange for Sam. You tortured her, and she gave you information. Or so we were told." I nudged Josh. "And what if we refuse?" Said the tallest of the four. He crossed his arms over his chest, and glared at me. Josh's eyes flew open, and he wildly yelled, "Don't mess with them! They single-handedly killed general! You don't know what they're capable of!" "SILENCE!" The man roared. "You mean to tell me you lost your mission, and got general killed! AND you gave away our secrets?! You TRAITOR!" Then he turned to me and grinned. "Well you can't use him against us, sweetheart." He threw one arm up into the air, and a single gunshot rang out. Josh's eyes opened even wider, and blood started pouring out of his neck. He opened his mouth to scream, but he immediately started coughing up blood. His body twitched, and he fell into spasms. After a moment, he fell still. Alexa, who was guarding him, stepped forward. Her eyes filled with fury, and she yelled, "He was your ally, your teammate, your _friend_! And you shot him like it was nothing!" She pulled out her katana. The man reached for his gun, but Alexa was already upon him. I pulled out my python and fired at the man next to her. I aimed at another one, and fired. She took out the last man. I turned to my teammates. "Guys, we're taking this place, by force. Let's go.


	19. Chapter 18

18

I reached down and stripped the weapons off of the four bodies. By this time, more people were on the roof, firing at us. I dove behind a car, and others did the same. "Guys," I yelled over the gunshots. "Hold them off! I have a plan!" I grabbed Alexa and Logan by the arms, and ran to the next car. From car to car, we reached the other side of the parking lot. With one last sprint, we reached the side of the school. I put my finger to my lips to tell them to be silent.

We quietly walked to the back of the school. I showed them my tree where I would climb into the window. They nodded, and we all climbed the tree. Once again, we entered the food room. We took everything, and shoved it in our three backpacks. "There should be guards outside this door." I whispered. "Alexa, you take the one on the right. I'll take the left." Logan protested. "Why can't I kill somebody?" I quickly replied, because our swords are quieter than your gun. I swung open the door without warning, and struck the left guard in the neck. He toppled over, in a silent, bloody scream. Alexa struck the one on the right, piercing his eye, and the sword came right out the back of its skull. Alexa ripped it out and nodded at me. "Clear." I said to Logan, who was cowering behind the door. He walked out and stripped the guards down, weapons wise. He put the knives and guns in his backpack and whispered to us, "Let's go to the roof. We can kill them all, which would allow the others to get in. Then we can wipe out every stinkin' person in here. We'll have this place conquered by nightfall. No more sleeping in an RV." I nodded to Logan.

"We can't take them all out though." Alexa said. "Some people here are innocent. We can't kill them." Logan agreed. "We won't. Unless it's necessary." It only took minutes to find the ladder that would take us to the roof. "You guys…," I whispered, "We might not all make it out alive… but don't hold back. This will be a fight to the death." Logan and Alexa nodded simultaneously. We climbed up the ladder, and that's when things got bad.

We came onto the roof silently. Alexa and I, swords out, killed everyone in our paths. The snipers couldn't hear us over their own rapid firing. I took out a few, and so did Alexa. _Easy as pie_. I thought. There was one left. His rifle was pointed towards Carl. The child was laying on the ground, pointing his pistol upwards. He continued firing, but Carl missed over and over again. Alexa knew what the man was planning. She sprinted to the man, and I did the same.

The man was going to kill Carl. A bullet flew out of the gun. Time slowed down. Alexa reached the man. He spun around, but Alexa sliced off his head. Jarrett, on the ground, saw the bullet coming. He sprinted to Carl. Jarrett shoved Carl out of the bullet's path, but he didn't get out of the way fast enough. He fell to the ground, blood covering his side. Alexa screamed. She nearly fell off the roof trying to climb down the ladder. Logan and I followed, shocked.

Alexa fell at Jarrett's side. She knelt beside him. "No…" She whispered, "I can't lose you now." She grasped his hands as if her life depended on it. "Please, for me, just… don't die!" The last words were choked out, and tears started streaming down her face. He looked up just as the life started fading out of his eyes. "I love you. I always will. Don't forget…" His eyes closed and I could tell it was the end of Jarrett. "I-I love you. This isn't goodbye, THIS ISN'T GOODBYE!" She collapsed over his bloody chest, sobbing. I stepped forward and tried to pull her away. "Alexa… He's gone." She fought to try to shake me off. Logan stepped forward and helped me drag her away. We dragged her into the RV. She was covered in his blood, and there was no more life in her usually-excited eyes. "W-What do I do…?" She whispered, "He was my everything. My reason for existence." "I'm sorry…" Logan whispered. He was crying too, he had just lost a good friend. We sat there in silence for a moment. The rest of the group walked in. Their eyes were wide. "We didn't realize that you'd come back. We thought you were dead…" Megan whispered. "We're okay Megan. But Jarrett got killed." "I realized… I saw the body." She turned to Alexa. "Alexa, Jarrett would have wanted you to have this." She pulled out Jarrett's sword, sparkling and covered in blood.

Alexa snatched it out of Megan's hands. Her eyes hardened. "We have to go back. Avenge Jarrett, and take the school." "Um…" Kate mumbled. "That's kinda why we came back…" "What?" Alexa asked. "Yah um… they called in for backup. There are too many of them and we couldn't hold them off. We have to get away from here." Renee said. Kristen started panicking. "We can't go back! They know where base is!" I nodded. We can't go back, and we can't take the school. We have to go somewhere else." Logan pulled off my backpack. He looked in it and frowned. "We only have enough food for… maybe two weeks? And we don't even know where we're going." "That settles it. We'll go outside, attach the cycle to the back of the RV, and I'll drive the RV. Logan will be up there with me. We're getting out of here, and we're getting somewhere safe. And trust me, this time, we'll do anything it takes to survive. Even if it means killing everyone else."


	20. Chapter 19

19

We drove for hours. We had gotten far enough away from the school so that we were safe, but we still could not find shelter, and it was getting late. Logan dozed off next to me, and I wished that I could do the same, but we had to get somewhere safe. _I wonder what we would have done if Sam was here_, I thought. I felt a twinge of grief when I thought of Sam. She hadn't been at the school. She had either left… or she was killed. I hoped she was okay.

_Ding!_ I looked down. The RV made a dinging sound. The gas tank was nearly empty. "Uggg." I moaned. We would have to stop here, or look for gas. I shook Logan's arm. "zzzz-WHA?" He yelled. He looked at me and sighed. "Oh, just you. I thought maybe a walker was getting me." "Logan," I whispered. "We're out of gas." He made an agitated sound, and stood. He opened a drawer and pulled a siphon out. "We'd better hurry, before the others wake up." "Before _you_ wake them up," I joked. He grinned. I quickly looked through the windshield at the setting sun. "We should have… I dunno, thirty minutes or so? Let's go." He opened the door and we walked out. Everyone was crammed on the beds, the table, and the couch. I sighed. _We really need more space._ I opened the door to the outside, and Logan and I slipped out.

We first looked around to observe the scene. There were two buildings to our left, and one to the right. There was a long road ahead of us, and strangely enough, it was deserted. There was a parking lot to the right, next to the building. Cars were piled everywhere. I grinned. "That looks like the place." Logan said, echoing my thoughts. I grabbed the siphon. "Could you go get the gas containers? We might as well get as much as we can." He nodded, and slipped back inside. I carried the only gas container I brought, and walked to the parking lot. The very first car I hit filled up the gallon, and there was still lots left. _Wow, this place must have gone down quick! But where are the bodies…?_ At that moment something touched my shoulder. I spun around and pulled out my sword. "Woah, woah! It's just me!" Logan yelled. He was carrying gas containers. He dropped them at my feet. I'm going to get more. Don't freak out next time." He laughed, and walked back to the RV.

I went from car to car, filling up every container to the very top. This place was a gold mine; I had to take advantage of it. Logan had come back with more containers, and we filled up them all, and drained nearly everything. We walked to the RV and dumped in a few containers. "This should last us awhile. Now let's go fill these ones up again"

When we finished the job, and all the gas containers were placed in the RV, Logan and I decided to go loot the buildings. We walked to the first one, and it was silent inside. I called out, "Anyone here?" There was no answer, and no moans from the undead either. Logan took the front, and I walked behind him. He wielded a knife, and I had my sword ready.  
There was just one gaping hallway, and rooms on the sides. At the end of the hallway, there was a staircase. Logan jerked his head to the right, signaling that he would take those rooms and I would take the rooms on the left. He cautiously walked in, and I walked into the first room on the left. There was a blood-spattered bed, and a dresser. I opened all the drawers. There was no clothes, so I assumed that the place had already been looted.  
I cursed under my breath. I was really hoping that we could find something useful in the buildings. As I was lost in my thoughts, something grabbed my ankle. In fear, I leaped back, and swung my sword forwards. A walker had crawled out from under the bed. It's rotting face was covered in scars, and the black bandana around his forehead was torn and covered in bite marks. The man had no legs, and just one arm. It had a backpack on its back. I swung the sword one more time and hit the zombie in the temple. It's grip released from my ankle and it went limp. I yanked the backpack off its back, and looked inside. There was plenty of food, water, and weapons in the bag. I was pleased with the findings. I slung the pack over my shoulder, but as I started walking to the next room I dropped something. It was a book, but it wasn't an ordinary book.  
The cover read: Center for disease control; stopping the virus. A name was scribbled on the bottom: Jefferry Paul. I opened the book. On the first page, scribbled in rushed letters, was an explanation. I quickly called out for Logan. He ran in, alert, and ready for an attack. When he saw that I wasn't being attacked, he calmed down. I motioned him to the bed, and we sat next to each other. I read out loud. "Day one: my name is Jeffery, and I work at the Center for Disease Control, or CDC. Today we heard some reports. People were devouring each other. We don't know what this is, it's not that bad, but it must be contained." The page ended. I flipped to the next.  
"Day two: More people are dying. We are working our hardest to contain the disease, but everyone dying is turning into one. We can't stop it.  
Day three: My God, we can't stop it. Nearly half the population is dead. We don't know what this is. A virus, a parasite, all we know is that it might have goon airborne. Everyone dying, no matter what from, is turning. Once they turn, they attack their friends, and try to eat them.  
Day four:-" I started, but Logan stopped me. "Save it for later. I'll scout out the rooms. Read if you must." His face was red, and he was shaking. The book was scaring him. I nodded, and he walked out. I continued reading, silently now.  
Day four: its over. We can't do it. People are running out, commuting suicide, My God, I can't stay. I'm leaving, and I'll make it. I'll go to my little town, Martysville. It was where I grew up, in a apartment. The towns so tiny, only three buildings. It can't be that populated too. I have to get out.  
The next pages read day five, and six, but they were empty. I turned to the next page, and saw that it said Day seven. I continued reading.  
Day seven: I made it. I barely made it here alive, but the place was empty. I started looting, seeing if there was enough food. Now I'm sitting on my bed, writing this hastily. I can see the monsters approaching, I thought this place was empty, but they're everywhere. Dammit! I crawled under the bed, they're all around me. I think I found it, the cure, but if I don't make it out, I can't help. Dear god, they're coming, there's no escape, but the cure, it's  
And then the page ended. I searched around, but the rest of the book was empty. That man-Jefferry, died here. But... There were so many walkers that killed him. So where we're they...? My body went rigid. _Logan's out there!_ Just at that moment, I heard a scream, and it sounded like Logan. I ran out of the room, clutching my backpack. I saw Logan tumble down the stairs at the end of the hallway. He got up and sprinted to me. He grabbed my hand and sprinted outside. I ran with him. Be struggled to speak. "Up-upstairs... Hundreds of them..." We hopped into the RV, and I stepped on the gas. The walkers ran out befind us, and they chased us down the road. _The disease is airborne..._ I remembered. _Someday, whether or not I survive the walkers, I'll become one of them._


	21. Chapter 20

20

Somehow, through all of this, everyone was still asleep. I envied them, because I was exhausted. The sun had disappeared over the horizon. Logan was fast asleep next to me. His head was rested against the wall and he was snoring quietly. We had been driving for awhile. I could feel my eyes growing heavy, but I couldn't stop now. I had to drive my comrades somewhere safe.  
It was so dark, and yet I could not turn on my headlights because it may attract walkers. _Okay… I just need to see where I'm at. I'll turn them on for 5 seconds._ I flashed on the lights. "Rrg?" A walker moaned. It was just a few feet away. I slammed my foot of the gas and slammed into it with the RV. I smirked, and continued to look around. No walkers anywhere else. Trying to not wake anyone up, I slid open the door and walked outside. I climbed on top of the RV, keeping watch.  
I wasn't sure how long I was up there, but I couldn't stay awake any longer. I started climbing down to wake Logan up for his watch, but something brushed my arm when I crawled down. I clicked on my flashlight. A walker's soulless eyes gazed at me, and I swear, it grinned. I yanked out my knife and killed it before it could try to bite me. I slipped into the RV. I tripped, and slammed my hand on the horn.  
_Crap._Not only did all my friends jolt from their sleep (except Logan, he was exhausted), but I turned on the headlights to see if I had attracted anything. Walkers were running at the RV from both sides of the road, from the front, and the back. Kate appeared next to me. "Maddy, everything alright?" I slammed on the gas, causing her to fall backwards. If I hadn't been running on only adrenaline rush, I would have laughed at her. She got back up and looked out the windshield, right as I smashed through the walkers. Bodies flew into the windshield, and blood splattered everywhere. Soon everyone was awake, and I heard the buzz of fear in the back of my mind. I blocked it out, and drove.  
"Ow!" I mumbled. I put my hand onto my head, and realized that I was burning up. Spots covered my vision, and that was when I realized that I should have gone to sleep a long time ago. "Kate!" I gasped. "You need to-"  
And that was when I blacked out. My vision faded in and out, but I wasn't aware of what was going on around me. It was as if I was watching from a distance. My body tumbled off the chair, and Kate looked in shock. She quickly jumped to the steering wheel. "Um…" She mumbled. She slammed on the gas and drove. I heard a scream and saw Kate jerk the steering wheel. That was the last thing I saw.


	22. Chapter 21

21 Part 1

"Maddy?" A voice whispered. It got louder and louder, and my eyes sprung open. I was laying on the couch, a wet rag on my forehead. Kate and Mitch were looming over my head. "Kate? Mitch?" I whispered. The speaking made me burst into a fit of coughs, and I moaned and layed back down. "Maddy! You're sick from exhaustion! You can't keep doing this…" Mitch protested. "How did we… did we make it out?" I ignored him. Kate's face turned red, and she shook her head. Whatever happened, she obviously didn't want to tell me. I laughed, and the effort made me black out again.

21 Part 2: Kate

I had just witnessed my friend pass out. _Well, that's not good._ Oh, and by the way, we were speeding towards walkers. I ran to the steering wheel. I had to drive us out of here! I glanced at Logan, his skin pale and his face was twisted into an expression of fear. _He must be having a nightmare…_ I thought. I mean, this place is terrifying! My mind wandered from Logan. I looked up, and four walkers were right in front of the RV. A scream escaped my lips, and I jerked the steering wheel to the right. The RV started to tip over. _This is it, this is how we go down._ Just before we crashed, a hand appeared at the steering wheel. Logan was standing right next to me, his drowsy eyes focused on the road ahead of him. He sped into a warehouse-type thing, and he leaped out of the RV. I followed, confused about what he was about to do. If he even had a plan. He grabbed a gate. I grabbed the other side, and we chained it together. The walkers banged on the other side of the gate, and Logan backed away. My head was spinning, I started to fall, expecting to hit the ground I didn't. Logan caught me. Confused, I looked into his eyes, and he grinned. "Careful, babe. You wouldn't want to do a 'Maddy' and pass out on us." His face grew serious, he gently stood me up then he leaned in for a kiss. I quickly backed away. Awkwardly, I smiled and thought to myself, _I've put this kid through enough. _Our lips slowly began to touch. I pulled away shortly and the world went black as I fell asleep in his arms.

I woke up in the RV passenger seat. Logan was driving, and the setting I remembered from last night was nowhere to be found. _Could it have all been just a dream?_ I wondered. I looked at Logan, and he caught my eye. He started to smile, but he quickly looked away. _Nope, _Ismiled. _It really happened._ I was lost in my thoughts when I heard Mitch call from the back, "She's coming to!" Logan continued to sit at the wheel, with no reaction to Mitch's call I could tell he was thinking the same thing I was. Gradually I stood up, Logan and I locked eyes and I went to see Maddy and Mitch shaking my head hoping we would never vision a memory of last night. I kissed Logan! I shook my head back and forth, must have just been exhausted last night I tried to convince myself.


	23. Chapter 22

22: Back to Maddy

I couldn't stand being sick. It seems like when you're fine, nothing happens, but when you're sick, everything happens. I couldn't tell what went on, but something happened between Logan and Kate. Kate had stopped teasing him like she normally does, and Logan was more in-love with Kate than ever. The rest of the group didn't change. Our near-death encounter must have not phased them. Logan had been driving nonstop, and Kate sat next to him the whole time.  
Since I was bedridden, (or couch ridden), I couldn't do anything to help the group, except try to pinpoint where we were on a map. I looked for street signs everywhere, but most had been torn down. I finally found one, and it read Clintwood road. I grabbed a marker and drew a small dot where we were.  
As I looked out the window, in my reflection I saw someone come up behind me. "Hi Maddy." I heard Mitch's voice and turned around. "You feeling better?" I nodded. I didn't really want to talk. He continued anyways. "So... you have a lot of maps up here, don't you? You got any idea where we're at?" I showed him the map, and pointed at the dot. Mitch nodded, and seemed intrigued, even though it wasn't very interesting. I stifled a laugh, because he was so ridiculous. He looked at me, and sighed. "Well, I see you don't really want to talk to me, do you?" Then he got up and started towards the back of the RV. "No Mitch, it's not that. It's just..." My words trailed off. He turned around and walked back. "What?" He asked. "You feel like a burden? Don't worry about it, we all get sick." "Yeah, but when most people get sick, they don't nearly crash an RV full of people." He laughed. "Kate was there. Everything turned out okay. Just get more sleep next time. You don't have to do so much." I shook my head. "I have to keep all these people safe. I can't let any of my comrades die." "Agreed," Mitch replied. "But you know you're not the only person that can keep us safe. Come to me if you need help. I'll be there for you." I smiled. "Thanks Mitch, it means a lot." He grinned, and got back up. He walked to the back of the RV.  
"Hey you guys!" I heard Logan call from up front."Look outside! I think we found a place to stay!" I looked out the window closest to me, and I could picture all of my friends doing the same. Outside of our RV, paradise awaited. Yes, we were far from civilization, but there was one lone building next to us. A shimmering lake was behind the building, and there was a forest next to that. The building was pretty tall, and there were heavy metal doors with chains on them. A fence surrounded the area, so we opened the gate and drove in. We closed the gate behind us, and everyone walked outside. I followed, hoping all the walking wouldn't bring my fever back up.  
I took a look at the sign. At first look, it looked like it read 'Hotel' because of all the broken letters. But when I looked at it longer, I realized that it didn't say 'Hotel', but it said 'Hospital'.

**Alright guys! End of book one! The second book is on my profile, it's called: The road to safety-Rise of the Survivors 2! If you want to read more! Go check it out!**


	24. Chapter 23

23: Logan

I was filled to the brink with glee. After driving for days, I think I actually found a safe place for my friends and I to stay. It was a hospital, and the doors were chained. I hoped they were chained because people wanted to keep intruders out, not because they wanted to contain walkers inside.

"Alright everybody," I called out. "We need to clear this place out. I'm going to open the doors. Prepare for the worst, and fight for your life." I kicked the chain, and it fell loose. The doors swung open, and tons of walkers hobbled out. At the sight of fresh meat, they moaned and sped up. I looked at my friends. They all had knives, tomahawks, swords, or something short-ranged. I pulled out a hatchet, and swung it into the skull of the closest walker. I frantically looked around for Kate, and saw her a few feet to my left. She caught my eye, and quickly looked away. Her face burned red, and I could feel mine doing the same. Switching back to the task at hand, I turned towards the doors and slashed one walker after another in effort to save my friends. Blood was everywhere. My heart was pounding and everyone was breathing heavy as more walkers slowly creeped out of the two wide doors. "Maybe this wasn't such a great place to stay." I croaked out. Zombies started coming from more than just the doors. They were everywhere, some coming onto the roof and out of windows. There was so many they couldn't all fit on the roof. At the sight of living humans, they started plummeting to their own death in search of a meal. Dodging a zombie from above was new technique for all of us. After the first few zombies jumping off the roof, the number of zombies creeping out the doors began to decrease.

I was gasping for air, I stared around at the dead walkers that were scattered everywhere. More importantly I started to look for my friends. I rounded up all of them except for Kate. "Kate!" "Kate!" we all yelled. There was no response. "Okay everyone split up in groups of two and find her. I'll go alone." I quickly scanned the area in front of me and screamed her name. I began to get really worried. She wouldn't just wander off on her own would she? No she wouldn't t leave me, she loves me for crying out loud!? I paced back and forth then ran around the other side of building. It was dark and dead flowers covered the ground. I walked slowly scanning the area. "Kate?!" I yelled over and over again. "It's safe to come out!" "We did it, it's okay, they're all gone!" I looked down at the ground. The dry soil and the dead flowers rising over my shoes. I came to the corner and turned hugging the brick wall. I looked up and no sign of her anywhere. I began doubting myself. "I'll never see my true love again!" I muttered under my breath. I looked down and picked up a rose that still had the slightest bit of life left in it and I almost passed out. There she was, her head against the wall and blood running down her forehead and neck. I knelt down and scooped her up. Thank god she still had a pulse. I placed the rose in her hands that were ice cold and called everyone back to the RV. I was immediately surrounded with excitement and questions from the other girls. I ignored them and stared at Kate's closed pink lips and long eye lashes. I layed her down on the couch and took my sleeve to wipe the blood from her forehead. I called for Maddy and she brought the first aid kit. I placed bandages on her neck once the cuts were cleaned and free from infection according to Mitch. I refused to let them bandage her forehead. I slowly brushed her hair from her face and kissed her forehead. The world was silent. I placed a damp warm cloth onto her head being careful not to wake her. I must have stared at her the whole day. I didn't know if she knew I was there or what had happened, but I did.

Kate was out for 2 days. I stayed by her side the whole time. She never moved and neither did I. When I had to leave I asked someone to keep watch on her for him so I didn't miss a single moment. It seemed like it has taken forever but she finally moved and slowly, carefully got up. She sat up on the couch and as she moved my blanket away she saw the rose. The slightest bit of color still showing, she grasped it carefully. I walked in and she actually spoke to me. "Who put this weed on me!?" "Gross!" she asked as she threw it on the ground. I was a little shocked at this statement but I sat down next to her anyway. "It's a rose, in a field of dead flowers this one shown the brightest. When I picked it I thought of you and then found you. It was like a miracle. I thought I would never see you again. You really had me scared." I placed the rose back in her hands. "Oh wow Logan." she said, her cheeks turning red. She began to stand up and I stopped her. "Sit down! Do you know how long you were out?" "I don't know like a hour maybe 2?" "You were out for two days and I sat right here next to you on this couch the whole time!" "Really?! Two whole days? What happened to me?!" "Kate you're missing the point!" We both sat at the edge of the couch, our heads down, silent. She reached for my hand. "Look at me Logan." I didn't budge, "Logan look at me!"

"What?" I said my head still down. "Thanks."

"Thanks? Wow never thought I'd hear that from you." We both chuckled. She touched my cheek softly now forcing me to look at her, I couldn't help it. Our fingers now locked together. "Thanks for everything, looking for me, caring about me, taking me back here, sitting here for two whole days, thank you Logan."

"Oh n-no problem." I felt like passing out, this meant she cared right?! Kate cares about me! I think... I will never understand girls. I raised our hands still locked together and kissed hers. She didn't even flinch. She put her head on my shoulder and we leaned back both drifting off in slumber.


	25. Chapter 24

24 Part 1: Maddy

I still can't figure out what is up between Logan and Kate! They were acting so strange. They went from Logan obsessing over Kate, then Kate hating his guts, to Logan saving her life! She would always deny it, but I knew that she liked him. I had my suspicions that something happened the night she woke up. Whenever she just even glanced at him she turned away with red checks, shook her head and rubbed the scars on her neck.

It had been two days since Kate had been found, nearly dead. Logan insisted never to leave her so the rest of us had to clean out the hospital.

24 Part 2: Two days earlier

"Hey Renee!" I called over to her. "You wanna go clean out some of the hospital with me?" She nodded. "Sure! I'll get Megan, Kristen, and Matisse to come." "Okay. I'll get Alexa, Katie, and Mitch. We'll need all the help we can get." "I'm coming too!" I heard a voice yell. I spun around to see a very angry-looking Carl standing there. "Carl..." I started. "You can't come in. You'll get hurt. It's dangerous in there." His head drooped. He kicked his feet making dirt fly. I coughed. He whispered, "I want to help. Everything I do causes trouble. My parents both died, and that man... Jarrett was his name? He died when he tried to save me." Tears filled his eyes, but then he looked up in anger. "But that won't happen anymore! I'm going to be brave, just like my dad!"

I sighed. _I can't let this kid come in. He'll die._ An idea popped into my mind. "Hey carl," I said. "How would you like to do a special job for me?" His eyes filled with excitement. "What is it?" "You get to go help Kate, with Logan." He nodded vigorously, and ran into the RV.

Just then, Renee, Kristen, Matisse, Megan, Alexa, Katie, and Mitch all came running over. They all wielded their own weapons of choice. Renee had a giant shoe... just kidding. It was actually a sparkly purple shanking knife. Kristen had a silver bladed knife. Matisse was too busy adjusting her high heel to notice what was going on. I shoved a knife into her hand. "Take this Matisse." I said to her. "Oh," she mumbled. She held the knife, and put her shoe back on. Megan had a small hatchet wedged into her belt, and she had borrowed Jarrett's sword. Obviously, Alexa had her golden katana. Katie had a Victor Lee Fantasy Folding Knife, which suited her. (for all of you that don't know everything about weapons, that is a four bladed knife, that can be thrown like a ninja star.) Mitch had an army knife. I had my sword, and my crossbow was slung over my shoulder.

I kicked the front door to the hospital. It swung open, and the hallways were empty. I pulled out a flashlight, and a few of my friends did the same. I shone the light down the hallway, hoping that maybe, just maybe there wouldn't be any walkers inside. Nothing crawled towards us, so I was hoping for the best. I motioned for my group to move forward, and they walked in. There were three rooms on the left of us, and three rooms on the right. There were stairs leading down at the end of the hallway, and also stairs leading up. "Megan, Renee, Kristen, you take this room," I said as I pointed to the first room on the left. I then pointed to the next door. "Alexa and Matisse, you take this room." The last room on the left I gave to Mitch and Katie. "I'll take the first room on the right. Scavenge whatever you can, and meet me back here when you're done." Everyone nodded, and split up to go to their own rooms. I walked into my room.

"Holy…" I whispered. This was a small hospital, and when this virus spread, they must not have had enough rooms. I looked around, at row after row of decaying people, none of them even having beds. Only two beds were in the room. I started to count. _One… two… three…_ I stopped at about forty-five people. When I got closer, I realized something else. Each person had a small hole on their forehead, and blood was splattered on the bed sheets underneath them. They all must have gotten shot when they started to turn into a walker. None of them were moving though, and I walked back out of the room. Katie, Mitch, Alexa, and Matisse were already waiting. "You find anything?" I whispered. Mitch pulled out one box of painkillers. "I found this, and more bodies that I could count. All shot in the head." I nodded. "Me too." Alexa whispered, "Us too." Just then, Renee, Megan, and Kristen walked out. "Just bodies." Kristen whispered. Renee moaned. "I think I'm gonna be sick." The air smelled like rotting bodies, and I thought I would be sick too. "We have two more rooms," Megan said, and she pointed to the two rooms on our right.

We split up evenly, and walked into the rooms. Just dead bodies, as far as we could tell. "Okay, we can move upstairs, or down. Should we split up, or just move in one group?" I asked. Alexa replied, "We should stay together. Down those steps, it looks pretty menacing. We don't know what could be down there." I nodded. "Alright, down or up first?" Megan said, "How about up? If we clear out the upstairs part, then we can take this place by night. No more sleeping in that RV." "Sounds good." I said. We started walking upstairs. The steps were covered in blood, and there was a barricaded door at the top. I pulled out a small axe from my boot, (don't ask why I keep an axe in my boot), and chopped the chain down. "Get ready guys!" I yelled. I kicked the door, and it swung forward. What we saw at the top shocked us. There was one large room, and it was all cleared out. No bodies, and there was one man standing there, pointing a rifle at my head. "Woah, buddy, take it easy! We're not infected, and we cleared out this hospital!" I shot my hands up into the air to show that I had no weapons. He lowered his gun. The man had long, dark brown hair. He had crooked glasses, and one lens was broken. He had a long white coat on, and surprisingly, it was clean. "H-Hello…" He moaned. He started to cough. "Wow, I haven't talked in so long, I almost forgot what to say." His voice started to clear. "I'm so glad there are other survivors. I thought I was the only one left. My name's Chandler. I used to work here." "How long have you been up here, chained on this floor?" Alexa questioned. "Well… I'd been working at this hospital for three years. All of a sudden, one day a man came stumbling. He was going on about how he had been attacked by a cannibal. He showed us a large bite on his arm. We took the man, and gave him some medicine. He started coming down with a fever, and we kept him hospitalized. The next moment, he's up out of bed, attacking the doctors. He infected all the patients with whatever the virus was. All the doctors started turning, so I shot them, and the patients. Then some of the geeks chased me upstairs so I chained the door behind me. That was… about four months ago." "Geeks?" Renee asked.

"Geeks… that's what I call them. It's better than their actual name." "What's their actual name?" Kristen asked. "Their real name is Homo Coprophagus Somnambulus. Quite a mouthful." He lifted his hand and scratched the back of his neck. "So… considering that I know more about these geeks than you do, I'm assuming that you're not part of the military, coming to clean this mess up?" I shook my head. "We're just a group of people who survived. This hospital looked pretty safe, so we stopped here." His head drooped. "I should 'a known. This thing won't blow over." He then looked up at us. Well, how would you like a tour?"


	26. Chapter 25

25: Alexa

Something about this man-Chandler, reminded me of Jarrett. The way he grinned, the way he stood, but even more so, the way that I could tell what he was thinking. Snapping back to reality, I heard Maddy say, "Sure. Lead the way." We started walking. "Um, Chandler, what school did you go to? I think I've seen you before." "Oh, nowhere special, just a regular school." That was when I knew who he was. I walked closer, and whispered in his ear, "I know where you came from. I was trained in sword fighting. What about you?" He whispered back, "I was trained in medical abilities." As if he wanted to drop the subject, he called out to the group. "Here's the first room. It's nice, but I don't stay here." He then gestured to the next room. "Here's the room where I stay. It's my office" Before anyone could even look inside, he opened a door in front of him. It opened up into a large room. There was a window that covered the front wall. I walked over, and realized that I could see so far in that direction. On the right of the 'window room' there was a small door. Chandler opened the door. There was nothing in the room, but the window that had been on the wall had continued into this room. "We could move a bed into here if any of your group needs a room." Chandler said.

Chandler closed the door and led us back out. We were back next to his office, and he turned the opposite way. "This is the room where I keep the food." He opened the door, and revealed a room with shelves covering two of the walls. A pitiful amount of food remained. Chandler only had six cans of soup, and ten bottles of water. "You're lucky we came when we had," Maddy joked. "You would've run out of food." I could feel Chandler shudder at the thought of him dying up in this room. Chandler walked to the other side of the room. "This room has a ladder that leads onto the roof. There were geeks up there, so I blocked it off."

I stepped forward, and pulled out my katana. "Open the door. I'll handle it." He started to object, but when he remembered that I had been trained in sword fighting, he opened the door. Maddy cautiously stepped forward too, and she pulled out her sword. Six walkers stumbled out. One fell from where the ladder was, and a few more followed. I swung my katana at the first walker, and the top half of its head flew off. It immediately collapsed. Maddy took out the one that was next to me, and I killed the one in front of me. We continued to fight, while the rest of the group stood back and watched. Blood was splattered all over the previously clean floors, and we walked inside the room. The ladder was on the left wall, and there were shelves on the wall in front of us. On the shelves, there was medical supplies. Not like the stuff we had, this was real medicine. Anesthetic, bandages, painkillers, blood bags, anything that could help us.

Ignoring my friends going through the medicine, I decided to check out the roof. I climbed up the ladder, and glanced around. There were no bodies on the roof, and all around the perimeter there was a three foot wall to keep people from falling. I climbed back down. Maddy was standing there, waiting for me. "Hey Alexa, I'm about to clean out the basement. Wanna come along?"


	27. Chapter 26

26: Maddy

"Sure," Alexa replied after a moment of thinking. "Hey Chandler!" I yelled over my shoulder. "I'm cleaning out the basement! I'll be back soon, and I'm bringing Alexa!" He nodded, and went back to the group. Alexa followed me down the steps to the main floor, and then down the steps to the basement. "Wonder what we'll find down here…" I mumbled as I clicked on my flashlight. I shone it upon a table. Confused, I flashed it around the room. There were tables everywhere_! Could this be…?_ I looked at the counter. _A cafeteria!_ I grinned, and hopped behind the counter. Alexa followed. "No way!" She yelled. I looked at where she was looking, and almost passed out. There were shelves after shelves of food. There was enough food and water to last us a year! "We'll load it up into the shelf room when we're done scouting the area." I said.

We looked around, and then Alexa spotted a door. "Maddy, over there," She pointed to it, and I walked over. "You ready?" I asked her. She nodded, and pulled out her sword. I kicked the door, and it swung forward. We waited in the silence. Nothing came at us, so we walked through it.

"So, Alexa, what do you think of Chandler? You seem like you know him." She shrugged. "We went to the same school, but we didn't have classes together." I nodded. "That's pretty cool."

On the other side of the door, there was a hallway and three doors on the other side of the hall. We walked into the first one. It was a laundry room, made for washing bed sheets and clothing. "Cool! If we can get these working then we can have clean clothes!" We walked into the next room, and found the hospital's infirmary. It was full of weapons and armor. "We'll take these up later." Alexa said. We walked to the final room.

Something was bugging me. The door was locked, and Alexa was quieter than usual. "Alexa… tell me about your school." Her face turned red, but she reluctantly replied, "I went to Dove Academy. I learned weird things there though." "Like what?" "This needs a lot of explaining… but you CAN'T tell the rest of the group." I nodded, and she started the story. "Dove Academy is for people that are… special. Everyone there has one thing in common." She looked up as her eyes started to glow gold. "They are mentally connected. That's why Jarrett and I always thought alike. We could read each other's thoughts."

My mind raced back to the first time I had met Alexa and Jarrett. They acted so similarly. She continued, "Not only is that, but everyone there trained in their own subject. Jarrett and I were classmates in sword fighting. Chandler went to our school too, and he was trained in the medical field. Only a few hundred people went to that school, but most of them are dead. I can't read them. In fact, I think Chandler and I are the only ones left."

My mind was racing to try to keep up. Before I could ask a question, she started again. "It's not like a superpower, it's just like another sense that most people don't have. I can also tell what people are thinking when I spend lots of time around them. I'm starting to be able to read you. But I can also pick up traces of energy in the air. Some is good, some is bad. All I know right now is that something in this room is very evil."

I didn't know what was worse, that Alexa could read my mind, or that this room was full of 'bad energy.' "I can see why you wouldn't want me to tell the others. Your… talent, is different from them. Um…" I started to question, "You can tell bad apart from good… what am I?" I asked desperately. Her face clouded. "Your energy is… hard to read. I think it's good, but it's changing a lot."

I could tell that she was lying. Some part of me was evil. This new world was really getting to me, and it's my life or someone else's, and I'm not going down. Obviously I want to keep my friends safe, they kind of look up to me as a leader, but if it was my life or someone else's…

I pushed the thought to the back of my mind. "Let's get in this hellhole." I pulled out an axe and hit the lock as hard as I could. It fell off, and the door creaked open. The penetrating stench made me stumble back. The reek of rotting flesh made me start to gag, and I shut the door again. "What's in there?!" Alexa shook her head. "No idea. Let's check it out." I opened the door again, and shone the flashlight inside. "What the…?" I whispered. There was a desk and chair, and multiple screens. Each screen showed a part of the hospital. The power wasn't working though! I looked under the desk. There was a generator, and at least fifty batteries next to it. "But… batteries don't last for months. Somebody must have changed them, recently." Alexa whispered. An eerie silence engulfed us. "It wasn't Chandler, he was locked upstairs. There's no way somebody could have survived down here! There's no food in this room, and the cafeteria was connected to the first floor! Walkers would have torn them apart…" I replied. Then, pulling out my sword and looking at everything in the room, I called out. "Who's there?! Come out or I'll kill you!" I heard something stifle a laugh, and then it was silent. The sound seemed to come from the wall. Alexa walked over, realizing the same thing. _Or maybe it's her powers…_ She hit the wall. The part that she hit swung inwards. A man was standing there. His long, black hair was matted, and his broken glasses were so shattered that I couldn't even tell if he could see. His lab coat resembled Chandler's, so I assumed that he was a doctor too. There were cans of food behind him, and water too. That explained how he survived in here. The man adjusted his glasses, and called out to us.

"Well go on then, kill me!"


	28. Chapter 27

27: Alexa

I watched the man slowly raise his hands above his head. Maddy raised her sword, and I cautiously did the same. The man grinned. "Hello! My name is Damien! Who are you folks?" "Alexa." I said plainly. "Get out of there." He walked out. "You cleaned out the lamebrains outside the door?" "No!" Maddy said sarcastically. "They're all just ignoring us! But in all honesty, I think you need to follow us."

I stood behind Damien as he walked up the stairs. He didn't appear to be trying to escape, but he seemed to not want to be here. We opened the door, and the rest of the group was setting up. People were moving into rooms, and Chandler looked at us with his mouth open. "What is it Chandler?" Megan asked. Then she looked at Damien. "Hey everybody! New guy!" The rest of our group came running. I walked over to Chandler. "This guy a doc?" "No," Chandler whispered. "He's a janitor. He works here to pay off all the medicine he uses. He's got so many things wrong with him. He's really dangerous. We need to get him out of here!"

As I turned to yell to Maddy, I heard a scream. I looked at Damien. He was next to Kristen, and there was a knife blade lodged in her front. "Shit!" Maddy yelled. She pulled out her gun and fired it. The bullet lodged itself into Damien's head. "nononononono!" Maddy yelled. We both ran over to Kristen, who was now coughing up blood. "Kristen, you're going to be okay." Maddy directed her attention to me. "Alexa! Grab some bandages! Hurry!" "Maddy, it's alright." She whispered. The effort of speaking made her cough up more blood. Her breathing became shallow. "Alexa, Maddy, you two take care of these guys." She gestured to Renee, Matisse, and Megan, who were crying next to her. "Kristen, you'll be okay. You just need..." My voice trailed off as Kristen's eyes went blank.

I heard the door swing open. Logan ran in. His eyes were wild with fear. "I heard a gunshot! Everyone okay?" His eyes fell on Kristen. "Oh man..." "Don't tell Kate! If she wakes up, DON'T TELL HER!" Renee choked out. Logan sadly nodded. He shuffled out of the room.

I felt Maddy stand up beside me. Her eyes were full of pure rage and she ran over to Damien's dead body. She repeatedly kicked it. I ran over and put my hand on her shoulder. "Maddy, it's okay." She sat down, and I did too. "What kind of a leader am I? I trusted this guy, and Kristen is dead now!" "I trusted him too. We couldn't have prevented this." I lied. We could have at least checked to make sure he didn't have a weapon. But if we had, maybe it would be Maddy dead, maybe it could have been me! I shuddered.

"That's it. I can't trust anyone else. Just you, and the group. All outsiders are shot on sight, or at least interrogated. You understand?" I nodded. Something had changed in Maddy. She had become darker. _But so are we all. These situations are slowly killing all of us, in a way that doesn't show on the outside._


	29. Chapter 28

28: Maddy

The hardest part of the day was the cleanup. The only thing worse than disposing of the zombies was carrying my dead friend downstairs. My mind went back to the book I had found. I placed Kristen at the bottom of the stairs, and I pulled out the book. I flipped through it. _Yeah, it says that you turn even if you aren't bit. _I shuddered. Would Kristen turn? I carried her outside, and started digging a grave. Only the zombies get burned; our people are buried. A fire burned a little while away. My friends were burning the zombie bodies. I started digging the grave. Kristen was placed next to me, so I could see if she turned.

My shovel struggled with the dirt. It would be dark soon, so I had better finish up. I jumped on the shovel, and it went _ca-chunk_ as it dug into the soil. Just then, I heard breathing. I turned around. Kristen had turned onto her side. "Oh man..." I whispered. She stood up, and shuffled towards me. I had never felt sicker than I had at this moment. My knees buckled, and I stumbled over. Her eyes had lost all color, and even though I knew she was Kristen, this thing in front of me was not her.

I pulled out my sword. _No, friends don't get their head sliced off. They get a bullet._ As Kristen approached, I pulled out my python. "I'm sorry friend." I whispered. My finger tightened on the trigger, and Kristen fell. I dragged her limp body into the grave, and then filled it back with the dirt.

A sob choked out of my throat. I sat next to the grave in silence. The sun continued to set over the horizon, and the grass was blowing in the breeze. Wait... no. That was too discolored to be grass. I looked in my binoculars. Covering the horizon was hundreds of walkers, coming from all directions.

"Crap!" I hissed. My gunshot and the fire were leading them right to us. I crouched and ran to the RV. "Logan, carry Kate inside, NOW!" I yelled. I ran to the fire. "Inside, now!" I yelled to the walker burners. They dropped the bodies where they were and ran. I stomped out the fire, and followed. Logan was carrying Kate behind me. We ran upstairs, and shut the large door.

"Everybody, you all need to be silent. No noise, no light, no moving, Nothing!" "What is it?" Matisse asked. Her face was covered in fear. "Look out the window if you have to. Matisse screamed at the sight. "You idiot! That's the opposite of what I said! Get down!" She dropped to the ground and crawled away from the window.

"Alexa, we're going to have to hold them off. That metal door won't hold back many of them. We'll have to kill the ones that wander upstairs." She nodded, and pulled out her sword. "No guns. That will lead them all to us. Just out swords. Logan!" I turned to him. "Put down Kate. I need your help." He nodded and ran over. I handed him Jarrett's sword. "Everyone else, silent. Renee, give me the signal." Renee stared out the window. "They're approaching the hospital... Only about ten came in. I'll call out if more come in. If I say get out of there, you better come back immediately." She hissed through her teeth. I nodded. I slowly opened the door. One walker spotted me, and started limping up the steps. Alexa jumped forward and silently sliced the top half of its head off. More walkers followed, but Alexa, Logan, and I could handle them. We killed lots of walkers off. The bodies piled up at the bottom of the steps. The sound of the bodies hitting the floor attracted more of them. "Guys!" Renee "Quietly" (sarcasm) yelled. I didn't listen. We might as well just take all of them out. "You guys, think we can do it?" I asked. They both nodded, and we stood our ground. The more walkers we killed, the less that kept coming. Our pile of bodies made it hard for the walkers to crawl over them.

I heard Logan let out a gasp. His foot slipped on a bloody step, and he fell into the bodies. He stood up, covered in blood. A walker came up right next to him, but it didn't attack. "What?" I questioned. "It's the scent!" Alexa hissed. "They think he's dead!" Alexa ran to the walker and killed it. "Thanks." Logan mumbled.

Alexa and I started wiping the blood on us. We shuffled out of the hospital silently. We looked around, and we saw that a lot of the walkers had left. There were only about twenty left. "We can take them out." Logan said. I swung my katana into the closest walker. At the sign of violence, the other walkers groaned and ran over. In unison, Alexa, Logan, and I sliced walkers in the head. We continued to take them out. When the last body fell, I sighed in relief. I walked inside with my friends. Renee was standing there, enraged. "You idiots! I didn't yell because you were outnumbered, I yelled because there's something else out there!" I ran up to the window, and Logan and Alexa followed.

What was outside struck fear into me. There was a school bus driving down the road, and most of the walkers had attracted their attention to that instead of us. That wasn't so bad, but what scared me was the bus itself. Written on the side, in blood, was 'revenge.' On the top of the bus, there was a zombie, and it was chained to the top. It's jaw was cut off, but there was no mistaking who it was. It was Jarrett, and the people driving the bus were the people from the school.

A man stuck his head out of the bus window. He swerved to avoid the zombies. He let out a loud laugh. "We found you guys! WE FOUND YOU!"


	30. Chapter 29

29: Maddy

I dropped my sword. It clattered to the ground, and then it was silent. "How many people can you fit in a school bus?" I asked Alexa. "Not sure… maybe twenty five?" "Then that means twenty five dead bodies. I picked up my sword and ran downstairs. Alexa and Logan followed my lead. Renee, Megan, Katie, and Chandler followed us. Matisse and Carl decided to stay with Kate.

I walked outside, and ran into the RV. I pulled out guns. I threw one to Alexa, another one to Logan, one to Megan, one to Katie, one to Renee, and another to Chandler. I pulled out one for myself too. Everyone ran out of the RV, and they got into position. I climbed on top of the RV, and pulled out a rifle. I layed down on the top of the RV, and fired at the school bus wheels. I heard the one wheel pop, and it deflated. The bus creaked as it drove with three wheels. I fired at the other wheel, and the bus flipped forward. It fell to the side and rolled. The walkers ran over and reached in the windows.

A bloody man crawled out. He had a handheld pistol, and he fired at me. I fell off the RV to avoid the bullet, and hit my head on the ground. I put my hand up to my ear, and it pulled away bloody. I heard a scream, and looked around the RV. The man with the pistol had a walker ripping into his neck. He misfired three shots, and then the walkers overpowered him and he was lost in a mass of bodies.

There had to have been more people in the bus, but nobody came out. "Kill the walkers guys!" I yelled over my shoulder. The bullets rocketed out of our guns. Walker after walker fell, and the school bus was silent. I crept over, and motioned for everyone else to stay back. The walker Jarrett was gnashing its teeth, trying to bite me. "I'm sorry Jarrett…" I whispered. I raised my sword to kill him, but Alexa ran up behind me to kill him herself. I couldn't look as she sliced through his head, but the sound was unbearable. He fell to the ground, dead once more. I glanced into the school bus window. Ten people or so sat in the seats. Most were unconscious, but two of them struggled out of their seats. They reached for their guns in unison, and started firing at me, who peered through the window. I ducked, and pulled out my python. I ran to the now shattered window, and fired a few shots at the people. One of them flew back, a hole in his chest. He looked down at his wound in disbelief, and then fell, dead. The other- this one a female, ducked behind a seat. She fired off one shot, and then it was silent.

I crawled inside the window cautiously. I crept to the girl, and I ducked on the other side of the seat. I quickly looked over, and then pulled my head back, but then I looked at her longer. I hadn't noticed before, but she had a large bite on her arm. There was also a hole in her head, and a lifeless hand wielding a gun next to it. The girl had… opted out of turning into a walker.

At that moment, a call reached my ears. "You okay in there?" It was Alexa. "Yeah," I called back. "You mind coming out here? Bring Logan!" I called back. They crawled in the bus window a moment later. "Let's take these unconscious guys, and we can tie them up. We'll question them." Logan and Alexa agreed. I nodded. "Sounds good." We pulled the limp bodies out of the seats. I stripped their weapons, Logan carried them out of the bus, and Alexa tied their hands behind their backs. "Hey Logan," I addressed him. He looked at me in question. I continued, "You think we can fix up this bus? Use it for something?" He nodded. "I'm no mechanic, but this bus wasn't banged up out of repair. Maybe Chandler knows how to fix cars." I heard a call from outside. "Someone is waking up!" I ran out with Logan.

A woman was sitting up. Her eyes glowed a fierce orange, and she stated matter-of-factly, "I'm not giving you any information. You can kill me." I stooped down to her on the ground. "Now y'see here, I've killed lots of people in the last few months, and killing another wouldn't be a problem…" Her eyes filled with what looked like fear, but her gaze hardened as I started again. "But I'm not going to do that. We don't need much information about your group, but I want to know why you came after us again, and how you found us."

Her gaze drifted to the ground, and then she raised her head. "You killed too many of our men. We had tried to make it look like we had just tough men in the school, but in reality, most of them were fighting. You took out almost all of them. Not only that, but you took our food too. Everyone there has nearly starved to death. We only have around ten people at the school, and about six here that are still alive. My mission was to come steal our food back."

I sighed. My mind raced, and I had no idea what to do. If she was telling the truth, then they were desperate and would risk anything to get our supplies. If they were lying and this was a set up, then they might just attack again. I walked to Alexa and Logan. "What should we do?" I whispered. Then I whispered just to Alexa, "Can you tell if she's telling the truth?" Alexa closed her eyes. They sprung open a moment later. "She is not lying, and I can sense good intentions coming from her. I nodded, and turned back to the woman.

"What's your name?" I asked "I'm Kendall. These unconscious bozos are Bentley, Randy, Toby, Gabe, and Alex." It looked like Kendall and Bentley were the only girls sent on the mission, other than the girl that died on the bus. Almost echoing my thoughts, Kendall whispered, "There was another girl with us, brown hair, blue shirt on… don't tell me she…" I nodded. "I'm sorry. She was bit, and she shot herself in the head." Kendall's eyes clouded. She smiled a sad smile. "That's just like her… April… she swore that she wouldn't let herself turn into a biter-ever! I would know, she was my very best friend." She choked out a sob. I looked into her eyes. "I'm sorry about your friend. But I can make it up to you. I'll fix up your bus, send you back to your group. You load them all up and bring them here. Pack everything valuable." She nodded, her sadness turning into hope.

I continued, "Looks like two rivals are becoming one team."


	31. Chapter 30

30: Alexa

The names flashed through my head. _Kendall, Bentley, Randy, Toby, Gabe, Alex._ That was a lot of people… I started to wonder if we would even have enough food and water for all of us. I watched Logan walk to the bus, and he immediately started repairing it. I ran over and we flipped the bus so it was right side up. Then I came back to Maddy and Kendall. I could sense a new mind awakening.

"Maddy, somebody's waking up." I stated. At that moment, the one called Randy sat up. "God dammit! We got captured, didn't we! All 'cuz of Jake's damn driving. We're good as dead!" He looked up at me. "Hell you lookin' at?!" He howled. Then he switched his attention to the ropes behind his back and he struggled to slip his hands out of them. Randy was tall, and well built. He had dark brown hair and brown eyes.

The man called Toby sat up next to him. Toby groaned, and mumbled. "Could you be any louder, Randy? That could wake up someone from a coma!" He joked. He looked up at me and Maddy and said, "Hey, I'm Toby. See I've been caught…" His arms flexed as he tried to pull his wrists apart. "So are you torturing us now?" "No," I started. "I think Kendall and us struck a deal. We'll tell more once everyone wakes up."

Almost on cue, Bentley sat up. "Oh my god my hair!" She screamed. Kendall shook her head and scowled. "Out of all people to survive…" She mumbled under her breath. "Hey! You wanna go there Kendall?! I'll take you down!" Bentley howled to Kendall.

Gabe sat up and groaned. He moved his leg, and let out a shriek of pain. He tried to grab his leg, but the ropes held tight. "What's the madder dumbass?" Randy questioned. I ran over to his leg and pulled his pant leg up. There was a long gash along it, and I realized that it was a scratch.

The sly smile on Randy's face dropped into a frown. "He's infected." Randy hopped up onto his tied feet. He wobbled, but attempted to hop over to Gabe. "Kill the bastard! He's infected!" Maddy ran over and restrained Randy. She whispered something into his ear, and then he immediately stopped struggling. He sat back down. "Gabe," Maddy said. "You're infected. I'm sorry, but I know that there is no cure. I can either kill you, or chop off your leg and hope that the infection hasn't already spread. What do you want?" Gabe grimaced. "My speed is my best point, and I can't run with one leg. Besides, I can already feel the virus creeping up into my brain. Just kill me now." Maddy nodded. She pulled her crossbow out and fired an arrow right through Gabe's eye. He fell backwards. Without any emotion on her face, Maddy reached forward and yanked the arrow out of Gabe's corpse.

"Alex won't be happy." Toby mumbled. "Gabe was his best friend." Kendall nodded sadly, and even Bentley looked sad. Randy just looked up and grinned. "It's a good day to be a sociopath!" He yelled. Then he let out a long laugh. I frowned. Randy wasn't evil, but he was far from nice. I couldn't tell whether he would help the group, or harm it.


	32. Chapter 31

31: Megan

_Hell no._ I got up off the ground and stood up. "Megan?! What are you doing? Maddy told us to stay here!" Renee hissed. "Yah well the gunfire stopped twenty minutes ago! I'm going to check out what happened. She can't just leave us here in the dark!" "Yeah… guess you're right." Renee stood up, and so did Matisse. I led them to the stairs. "Chandler!" I yelled over my shoulder. "Watch Carl and Kate!" He nodded, and his head disappeared as I walked down the stairs. I heard screaming outside, so I started running. Matisse tried to run after me, but she broke her high heel… AGAIN. "Dammit!" The tape that she had used fell off, and so did the heel. She stumbled behind me with one high heel and one shoe. Renee laughed at her, and then stopped her from falling. They were already far behind me, but I didn't stop. The door of the hospital swung open when my palms touched it, and I kept running.

At that moment, I realized I wasn't afraid. I wasn't afraid of the people out here, the zombies, I just needed to help my friends. I saw them by the school bus. Maddy was crouched by a screaming guy, Alexa was eyeing this tall guy, and Logan was standing off to the side. As I approached, Alexa looked at me. "What are you doing? We told you to stay inside! If we had been killed then you would have been shot the moment you ran out the doors!" "Well I had to check!" I yelled back. "I hate how you treat me like I can't help you, Alexa! I could have done just as well as you if I had been helping!"

I could see the look of contempt in Alexa's eyes. There was something she was hiding from me. Nevertheless, she didn't argue with me. I heard a sigh, and saw that Maddy was standing up. "Can't you two get along?" She mumbled. "Anyways, these people are our guests for a few days. This is Kendall, Bentley, Alex, Toby, and Randy."

"Ey!" The one named Randy called. "Why'd you say my name last?!" Maddy sighed again. I stifled a laugh. All of a sudden, Randy's eyes lit up. "Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn! Who's that?" I spun around and saw that Renee and Matisse were behind me. "Language!" Renee yelled. Randy laughed. "Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck." Renee covered her ears, but Matisse laughed. I looked at Maddy and mouthed: "You think Matisse likes Randy?" Maddy laughed. She then turned her attention back to Alex, who was sobbing. She said something to him, but I didn't hear what it was.

"Oh my god will somebody untie me!" Bentley yelled. "Sure." Maddy said. She tossed a knife to me, and she pulled out one herself. Renee winced. "Throwing knives is dangerous!" Maddy and I walked to the prisoners and cut the ropes behind their backs. I saw Logan shuffle his feet. Almost echoing my thoughts, Maddy said, "You okay Log?" He replied, "I'm going back to see Kate." Then he started jogging back to the hospital. Matisse was still joking around with Randy, and I realized that for once, things seemed… okay.


	33. Chapter 32

32: Maddy

I nodded to Megan, and I walked to the bus. It looked like Logan had repaired the bus pretty well, but the windows were all shattered and the top was caved in. I realized that I would have to pry the top off.

"Alexa! Can you get my screwdriver and hammer?" I called. She ran off with no reply. I pulled out my axe and started chopping at the side of the bus, right above the seats but below the windows. Alexa appeared a moment later and started helping. Megan came over to help too. We were all prying the top off slowly, and a moment after that we were sweeping the glass shards away. The bus was good as new. Well… not really, but it was safe to drive in again. I walked out of the bus and saw that Matisse and Randy were making out. Renee was sitting there in disgust, and Bentley was sitting there, mouth open. I knew that if I didn't break this up, somebody might get hurt.

"Hey! Bus is ready! Let's get you out of here!" I dragged Randy away from Matisse. He looked at me like he was going to protest, but thought again and just walked to the bus. Everyone followed, and Kendall walked to me. "We'll be back soon." Then she hopped into the bus. The engine started, and then the bus drove off.

"Let's go inside." I whispered. We walked into the hospital. There were bodies all over the floor. "We'll have to burn the bodies." Alexa said to me. I nodded, and then walked upstairs. I decided that it was time to announce something to my group.

"Everybody, I have something to tell you." Everyone looked confused, but directed their attention to me. "When I went to bury Kristen… something happened. She… came back. It turns out that we're all infected with the disease." Chandler's eyes grew wild with fear. "What?! That means that all my research is wrong!" Irritated, he banged his head against his fist. "Stupid, stupid." He muttered. Kate stirred beside him. "She's waking up!" Logan yelled. He grabbed her, and ran down the stairs. I looked out the window, and saw him jump into the RV.


	34. Chapter 33

33: Kate

I could feel my eyes open. I looked around, and saw that Logan was sitting next to me. I felt something on my face. I pulled it off and looked at it. "Who put this weed on me!?" "Gross!" I yelled as I tossed it onto the ground. Logan's face looked hurt, but he replied. "It's a rose, in a field of dead flowers this one shown the brightest. When I picked it I thought of you and then found you. It was like a miracle. I thought I would never see you again. You really had me scared" "Oh wow Logan." I mumbled. I started to stand up, but Logan yelled at me. "Sit down! Do you know how long you were out?" "I don't know like a hour maybe 2?" "You were out for two days and I sat right here next to you on this couch the whole time!" His face turned red, but I ignored it. "Really?! Two whole days? What happened to me?!" "Kate you're missing the point!" We both sat at the edge of the couch, our heads down, silent. "Thanks." I mumbled.

"Thanks? Wow never thought I'd hear that from you" We both chuckled. I touched his cheek softly now forcing him to look at me. Our fingers now locked together. "Thanks for everything, looking for me, caring about me, taking me back here, sitting here for two whole days, thank you Logan." "Oh n-no problem." He leaned forward and kissed my hand. The sun fell outside the window as a bloodstained Logan closed his eyes. His soft breathing made me drift into a sleep. _Wait, bloodstained? I thought he was with me this whole time? _I tried to think of a reason why he was bloody and battered, but my eyes drooped, and I fell asleep next to Logan.

The first rays of sunlight entered my window. I sat up. Logan started to stir beside me. He looked up at me, and he smiled. "How would you like to see our new home?" He questioned. I nodded. "Let's see it." He stood up, and reached for my hand. I grabbed it, and he pulled me up. He slowly walked me down the RV steps as if I were a newborn learning how to walk. He led me inside the front doors and had me follow him down a long hallway. After a while we stopped. "This is my room." he said. It echoed through the building. "Two rooms down is where you will be staying." I felt like he was treating me like a tourist. "You know, even though it's only been a day since I woke up, I'm not a baby." "I never said you were." he announced calmly. "Just don't treat me like one, k?" He let out a loud sigh. "It's not like I died and came back to life!" I didn't know what else to say. "You were pretty darn close to dying Kate! he remarked with sudden anger. "Whatever." I barked back, banging my hip against his. I tried to cheer him up. It was obvious he was not ready to talk about what had happened to me, or what happened that night. "Moving on." I said slowly.

"I missed that lovely sense of humor." he said smiling. "Moving on." I repeated with a smirk. "You missed me?" "Well ya..." he said quietly. I smiled.. It was nice be missed. After a long pause he choked out something. "What was that?" I asked. "Never mind." "Logan? Tell me, come on." "I said, I really like you Kate..." "Oh." I muttered out. These were the conversations I hate the most. I think it's incredibly awkward. I mean, I don't have the kind of mind that thinks sweet and gentle. What am I supposed to say back to that? "Oh uhhh thanks I guess." _I'm an idiot... _"I tell you my feelings about you and you can't even say anything back?!" I knew this would happen. "I know Logan, I know, I'm sorry." "You're sorry? For what? For not caring about me?"

"Oh come on Logan-" "No you come on! I give up Kate! I thought you actually cared for while! I guess I was wrong. I give up!"

Okay. Now I was mad. "Give up on what Logan? Huh? And you know what, I did care about you! You were there for me when I needed you!" Now I was yelling. "You helped me even when I didn't want it. You were there every step of the way! Now _I _give up!" "Give up?! You never really liked me, I could tell." "Then why'd you keep trying?!" I felt a tear run down my cheek. We were farther away from each other at opposite ends of the hallway now. "Because I thought you could change! I-I thought you would change. Obviously not!" "Obviously!" I ran toward him trying to get to my room. "You know what Kate? I've wasted too much time on this. First you hate me, then you like me, then you hate me again. Do you? Do you hate me? You know what, you do hate me! I'm done with this!" I was now frozen standing there. I tried to call back but he spun around and ran up the stairs. His footsteps echoed around the halls, and my ears hurt. A door slammed, and then he was gone.


	35. Chapter 34

34: Megan

A very distressed looking Logan ran upstairs. "Is Kate okay?" I asked. "Better than ever!" He said sarcastically. "Well are you okay? What happened?" Maddy said to him. "I'll be fine…" He mumbled. "Good. So as I was saying," Maddy continued. "We need more supplies. We need ammo, coats, winter supplies, food, and more. Who wants to go?" Logan immediately stepped forward. "I want to go." "Alright. Logan and…" "Me." I said. "I'll go."

"Alright. Megan and Logan. Here is a map of the area. Hit all the closest stores. It's in walking distance, so don't take a car. We can't spare the gas." I nodded. Logan seemed to be in a trance. I snapped in front of his face. "Hey! Logan!" He flew back, nearly knocking Maddy over. "Oof!" He mumbled. "Sorry." Maddy shook her head and then pointed at the door. "You can go when you're ready." Logan immediately strode towards the door. I had to run to catch up. "Hey!" I called after him, "Don't you want to say goodbye to everyone?" "No," was his reply. "I need a break from people." I chased him down the steps, and he ran into his room. He came out with his backpack. I ran to grab my backpack, and we paced out the front doors. Logan pulled out a shimmering sword. It looked familiar.

"Hey, isn't that Jarrett's sword?" I asked him. "Yeah, it was. I needed it though, so I took it." I felt a chill crawl up my spine. Logan seemed… cold. His normally humor-filled eyes were like ice now. He ripped the map out of my hands, and started walking. "We can get there in a few hours. There shouldn't be many walkers this way." I nodded, and walked behind him.

For a moment he stopped. I crashed into him, and he spun around. He was staring at the hospital, still visible on the horizon, and he whispered something to himself. Then he spun around and started walking again.

"Okay Logan, what is it?" I finally asked. He made a noise that half sounded like a grunt, half like a whimper. I took that as "Nothing Megan. I'm fine. So I dropped the subject. He turned to look at me, his eyes suddenly back to normal now. "Hey, is Renee single?" He let out a loud laugh. I laughed along with him, but this made me think that he and Kate had broken up.

"Did something happen with Kate?" I quietly asked. He frowned, and his gaze drifted to the ground. "Yeah, we got in a fight. It got pretty ugly. I don't think she likes me anymore. I'm not sure if she ever even did." "Are you crazy?!" Even I could sense the shock in my voice. "Kate _loves_ you! Have you never noticed the looks she gives you. I swear, she's with you every minute, and when she's not, she's just talking about you to me. Trust me, this fight won't matter soon. She'll go back to loving you in five minutes. Hell, she's probably already missing you." I quickly realized that I had said the wrong thing, right as it left my lips.

"Kate… MISSING ME?!" This triggered full mental breakdown mode. "I'M SORRY FOR LEAVING KATE! I'M COMING BACK, DON'T WORRY! I SHOULD HAVE NEVER VOULENTEERED FOR THIS MISSION!" He fell to his knees and started sobbing loudly. "Logan!" I hissed, "Every walker within ten miles can hear you! Shut up!"

Almost as if it was on cue, a walker stumbled over to us. It's teeth gnawed in anticipation, and it's bloody nails reached out. I quickly killed it with my knife. Another walker took its place. Another came up behind us, and more followed. "Logan! We gotta go!" I screamed at him. He didn't respond. "Logan! LOGAN!" I screamed, as walkers surrounded him. I heard him choke out a last cry, and then he screamed out, "NO!" He was lost in the mass of bodies.

I hate what I did next, but I ran. Logan was dead, and it wasn't my fault, but I should have stayed. I should have killed Logan while he was dying, to prevent him from coming back. I didn't though, and I hoped that I never had to see a walker Logan.


	36. Chapter 35

35: Logan?

The darkness was surrounding me. The bites covering my arms stung, and I could feel the venom pouring through them. If I didn't take my arm off now, the virus would take over me completely. I raised Jarrett's bloody sword, but a dark feeling overpowered me. I suddenly felt the need to eat. I pulled out a can of cold soup, but my arm instinctively threw it away. I needed… flesh. I nearly bit my own arm, but then I fell, as a gun fired in the distance. I couldn't get up, and I could feel something running down my head. I had been grazed by a bullet. _Is this how it feels to die? Never seeing my true love again, never seeing my friends._

This all went through my head as the walkers surrounded me. Thank god it was just a vision, but would this be my future if I gave up? "NO!" I screamed. I heard footsteps running away. _Megan?_ I wondered. I quickly stood up, and pulled out my sword. Walker after walker fell before me, and my heart was pounding in my ears. When the last walker was dead, I fell to my hands and knees. I vomited, which released the lump that had been in my throat since my fight with Kate.

I stood back up, and wiped the vomit from my chin. I picked up Jarrett's bloodstained sword, and stumbled in the direction that I assumed Megan had gone. Straggling walkers limped after me. I ran, and a few times I could have sworn that I saw Megan, but then she would disappear and I couldn't find her again. I wished that I still had the map.

The map! I did have it! I rummaged through my pockets, and pulled out a crumpled up piece of paper. I was so excited that I kissed it. I looked, and I was so close to the store. I could camp there for the night. Just as I thought it, the sky blazed hues of red and orange, as the sun streaked downward. I only had about an hour until I would be plunged into total darkness.

Something caught my eye. I turned to the right, just to see a little kid. She was next to a tent, and she was holding a gun. She looked about Carl's age. "Hey! You okay!" I called. She spun around, looked at me, and fired. The bullet missed me by a mile. She collapsed onto the ground, sobbing.

"You alright? You don't have to be afraid." She looked up at me. "Can't you talk?" I asked. She shook her head, and continued silently crying. I sighed. "Kid, your parents have to be here somewhere, you can't have been out here alone. Where are they?" her shaking finger pointed into the tent. I opened the zipper, just to see that both had a bullet hole in their head. There was a piece of paper on the ground next to them. I picked it up. It read: "Got bit. We couldn't risk turning and hurting our little girl. Stranger, if you're reading this, take care of our little girl."

I walked back outside, and grabbed the girl's hand. I pulled away her gun, and then lifted her on top of my shoulders. She gripped my hair as if her life depended on it. She shook her head, and pointed at the tent. _She wants to stay._ "We have to get you safe. We'll be in a safe spot soon. The girl's blonde hair bobbed in the wind, and white dots appeared as it started snowing. She clung to my head, trying to warm herself by rubbing her face against my hair.

The sun started setting faster, but a building appeared on the horizon. I let out a cry of delight, but then quieted down when I realized the girl was asleep. I neared the building, just to see that the doors were blocked by many walkers.


	37. Chapter 36

36: Alexa

_I'm dreaming. Well, I have to be! Weird thing is that I don't remember falling asleep. _One moment I was talking to Maddy, the next moment I was watching Logan get surrounded by walkers. As the first one bit him, he attacked. Walkers lunged for his arm, and many of them reached their target.

I wanted to look away, but something was forcing me to watch. Logan continued to fight the walkers, and the last few fell. Logan started bolting into the woods. Something forced me to follow, and my footsteps were in sync with his as we ran through the woods. Logan gasped for breath. He raised Jarrett's sword… Hey! He stole that! _Make a mental note._ He swung it at his arm, as if he wanted to cut it off. In mid swing, he collapsed onto the ground.

_No, no, no Logan. Don't you do that. Don't you turn._

It was silent. The sun set faster, Logan stayed still. It was minutes before anything happened. He sat up, but his eyes were dead. He seemed to reach for his backpack, but he ended up just throwing it. He stood up, and let out a low moan. He started shuffling in a random direction.

Or at least I _thought_ it was random.

I trekked after Logan, being forced to keep the same pace as him. Unlike dreams, where you can run forever and feel great, in this my legs ached from walking. That only happens in my visions… I shuddered, and passed the thought to the back of my mind. Although I know in real life it was just a moment, this dream lasted days, and Logan never changed direction. Although the new fallen snow slowed him down, and his pace as a walker was slow, he never stopped. The more he seemed 'determined' to get to his destination, the more the other walkers noticed. First a few started following, and then a few more, and then even more. They all followed him. I felt like one of the walkers, being forced to follow, and I shuddered. I didn't shudder because I was so close to the walkers, but because I finally knew what Logan was trying to do. Right ahead of us, through the falling snow, I saw the hospital. I heard a voice, _my_ voice, yelling from inside.

"Look out! I told you they were coming! I saw it in my vision!" A chill went up my spine, and my mind kicked into overdrive. Was this real? Will this actually happen?

I saw Maddy and, well, me? They ran outside, holding weapons. Without Logan, the group looked less menacing, and they would be easier to overpower. Megan ran out behind them, gripping her makeshift gun, with a blade duct-taped to the front. Then Kate ran out, and then Renee and Matisse. When Kate saw Logan, her eyes filled with tears. She took a step forwards, and with a choked sob, she lifted her gun. With one hand, she pointed the gun to Logan, who was now only twenty-or-so feet away. There was a loud crack, and I realized that Kate had pulled the trigger.

Logan crumpled to the ground. Blood poured out of his head, and he was still. At this moment, I could move freely again. I ran through a zombie (literally) and reached Logan. I tried to reach into his mind, maybe read it to see what he remembered, and then I was zapped into his memory.

It was like a dream within a dream, but this dream was just as scary as the last. All I could see this time was what Logan had seen. It started with him running. He tried to cut off his arm, just like before, but once again he collapsed. This time though, he was up in moments, and he thought he was still alive for a few seconds, but then his mind was gone. The scene went fuzzy and black, but it came back into focus right as he was shot. The dream ended, and my mind went back to the first spot, next to Logan's corpse. I watched the scene, and I saw more people pile out of the hospital. Carl, Chandler, Katie, Mitch. They all had guns, and they started firing.

I heard a scream, and I saw that Katie was being taken down. The walkers piled onto her body, and started feeding. Mitch tried to help, but they took him down too. Maddy screamed, "NO!" And she shot the walkers eating him. Mitch was already dead, and so was Katie. Maddy let out a sob, and then shot both of them so they wouldn't turn. Next it was Matisse who I heard scream. Her aim with the gun was terrible, and she repeatedly missed a walker. It bit her neck, and she passed out. The walkers started piling on top of her. Renee and Kate both ran to Matisse and started firing at the walkers on Matisse, but then one grabbed Renee. She grabbed onto Kate's arm, and Kate flipped. She started firing at the walker that had Renee, but it already had bitten Renee. Kate picked her up and sprinted to the doors. Without hesitation, Kate chopped off Renee's foot. Kate ran back out to the fight, but by then it was too late. The walkers piled around the hospital. I watched myself scream, "Maddy! I told you! I watched this all before in a vision! I was standing right there!" She pointed at where I was standing. She-I started yelling again. "Right about now is where we run inside! The battle is lost! We have to go!" Maddy looked at the doors to the hospital, and started sprinting to them. "Everyone inside!" Maddy screamed. I watched myself run in, and Kate ran in too. We were the only ones alive in the end of the battle. I followed them, and Maddy shut the doors. Kate and Maddy helped Renee up, but she was bleeding out. They all ran upstairs. Kate placed Renee on the ground. "Help her!" She screamed to Alexa #2. She shook her head. "Kate, I'm sorry, but I know what happens next. Renee is going to turn."

"No!" Kate screamed. She let out a sob. "That won't happen!" Renee stirred next to Kate. "Renee?! RENEE!" Kate screamed. She reached forwards to give her sister a hug, but something wasn't right. "NO!" Alexa #2 and I screamed in unison.

Renee was a walker.

She bit Kate in the neck. Kate screamed, and stumbled back. Maddy ran over and hit Renee with the back of her sword. Renee fell back, not being able to keep her balance with one foot, and she fell. Me #2 ran over and stabbed Renee in the brain. Maddy directed her attention to Kate. "Shit…" She whispered. Her eyes filled with tears. Everything that had happened in the fight made her snap. She started sobbing, and she whispered through her sobs, "I don't know what to do." Kate's eyes started to lose focus. She was dead. Maddy pulled out her knife and then stabbed Kate in the head.

So that was it. Only Maddy and I survive this. Just when I thought it was over, me #2 started crying. "Alexa, what's wrong with you? You've only ever cried once, and it was when your boyfriend died." "Maddy, there's something I never told you." "What is it?!" "It's about what happens next." At this moment, something banged on the door to the upstairs area we were staying in. The walkers broke through the first set of doors, and now they were breaking down the second. Maddy and Alexa #2 stood up. They nodded to each other, and then the walkers piled in.


	38. Chapter 37

37: Maddy

"ALEXA!" I screamed. We had just been talking, and then she passed out. She had been out for about two minutes, and I was wondering if she was okay. She stirred. Her eyes flew open, and they were full of fear. "Alexa?" I whispered. She sat up, and immediately grabbed my arm. She dragged me into the closest room, slammed the door, and spilled the story of what she had just seen. She told me that Logan was dead, and that he came back here. Apparently, he had other walkers following him, and then they came here. Alexa and I were the only survivors.

"Alexa, this might have just been a dream. If Logan doesn't come back, then we know. But he might be okay." Almost as if on cue, a voice was yelling outside. It was Megan. "MADDY! MADDY!" I jumped up, and Alexa did the same. We ran downstairs, and ran out the doors. Megan was standing there, and she looked terrified. "Logan's dead! The walkers surrounded us, and I lost him! I think he's…" She trailed off. "Logan's… dead?" A voice asked from behind me. I turned around. It was Kate. Tears started pooling in her eyes. She repeated herself. "Is he dead?"

"No." I said. "Until I see his body walking around, dead or alive, I won't believe anything." Megan started to protest, but I interrupted her. "Even if he's not out there, we still need the items that we were going to get in the shops. I'll go upstairs and see who's coming with us." I turned around, and walked upstairs. Megan followed me, and Alexa and Kate did too. I opened the door, and walked out. Everyone was waiting for us, so without hesitation I started to speak. "Logan's missing, and we still need the supplies. I need volunteers." Chandler stepped forward. "I'll go. I have a few supplies I need of my own." I nodded. Alexa spoke out, "I'm going too." Megan fidgeted next to me. "I'm going too." She mumbled. I want to find Logan." Kate also spoke. "I'm going too." Then Renee looked at her sister. She looked as if she was worried about her going. "I'll go too."

"Alright. I'm going too." I said. "Matisse, Carl, Katie, and Mitch, you guys stay." Without waiting for their response, I said to the others, "Pack up what you need. We're leaving in five minutes. Everyone bolted to their rooms, and packed their backpacks with food, water, guns, whatever they'd need. I did the same, walked to my room and packed up. I tossed everything out of my backpack onto the hospital bed, and then repacked it with a few cans of food, water bottles, my python, and AK47. I slung my crossbow over my shoulder, and grabbed the arrows. I stuck my sword through my belt, and I was ready to go.

I felt like the old Maddy. Like right when this started. Running off on insane missions- finding supplies, saving Matisse… and now I was going out to save Logan. The thought of me saving his life brought a smile to my face, an expression I hadn't worn in awhile. I walked out of my room, down the steps, and finally out the doors. Alexa was already there, waiting. Kate and Renee walked out together, Megan came out next, and then Chandler. They all saw the smile on my face, and they returned it. This mission could kill us all- but at the moment, we didn't care.

I broke the silence first. "Let's make like a hockey player, and get the puck out of here!" I joked. A few of them laughed, but Chandler and Alexa looked so serious that I could have sworn that both of their families just died.

Well, that might not be far from the truth, in a world like this…

I walked over by the RV, and the others followed. "Alright, are we driving, or walking?" "Driving." Alexa said. "It might be too late for Logan by the time we get there." I nodded. "Alright, everybody in." Alexa walked in first, followed by Chandler. Kate and Renee walked in, and then Megan. I followed, but instead of making a left, I turned right, into the driver's seat. I sat down, strapped on my seatbelt, and started driving. I sped off in the direction that Megan and Logan had taken, not a day earlier. Our vision was short, the snow was coming down faster now. The tires shrieked in protest as they slid on the ice. Just a few minutes after we left, Megan walked in and sat next to me.

"Hi." She spoke. "Hey." I replied. "You really think we're even going to find him?" That sentence chilled me to the bone. I hadn't even considered that Logan could be dead. He was the one who helped me out of the theatre, the one who always had my back through this. Hell, he had my back _before_ this all started. We had been friends since we were two! He had always been funny, and he was a great friend. When I was six he kissed me in his parents closet, and when I was ten he tackled me and wouldn't let me up until I said a swear word. There was no way he could be taken down by just a few walkers…

"Maddy?" Megan asked. "What are you thinking about?" "Nothing, it's nothing." Megan knew I wouldn't tell her. She sighed, and then stood up. She walked out of the room, and shut the door behind her. My mind drifted back to Logan.

I had to find Logan. I _had_ to! I already lost Kristen just awhile ago, I didn't want to lose Logan too. I didn't want to add Logan to the list of the dead.

List of the dead? That got me wondering. Just how many people had we lost? Kristen… Maggie, Aron… Jarrett…

Should I add everyone else? If we don't find Logan alive, then what Alexa told me might come true. She's got powers. So if she's right, then everyone else dies. Everyone but me and Alexa. She told me that we make it out okay. She looked like she was lying though, so did I die? Did she die?


	39. Chapter 38

38: Logan

"Wake up." I whispered to the sleeping girl. Her eyelashes fluttered as her eyes opened. She stared ahead in fear. She gripped my head harder. "I just have to get a few of them, it'll be okay. Just be sure to be quiet." Her eyes were wide with fear, but I smiled at her so she would know it's okay. I crept around to try to get to the back door, with her gripping my shoulder. There was a back door, to my relief, but It was still covered in a mass of walkers. I pulled out Jarrett's sword. "It's now or never," I mumbled to myself as the sun sank lower on the horizon. As quietly as I could, I ran to the nearest walker, and struck it in the head. The blade pierced through its skull, and with a sickening thump it crashed to the ground. The other walkers nearby groaned as they saw me approach, but as always, they couldn't avoid my katana. Walker after walker fell, the blood drenching the ground, and my shoes.

We were making too much noise. I started to panic. The walkers from the front heard us and started coming around. The girl was now silently crying, her tears dripping into my dirty hair. I was worried about her; what if I couldn't keep her safe out here? The panic rose up in my throat, making me feel like I was going to hurl. I quickly ran to the door, and I opened it. Thankfully, there were no walkers inside. I sighed a breath of relief, and set the girl down. I handed her the pistol. "Anything comes in here other than me, kill it!" She nodded, the tears ceasing. I ran back outside into the bloodbath, not missing a beat from where I had left off. I couldn't hear any gunshots coming from inside. The walkers surrounded me from all sides and I spun around wielding the katana. I nearly dropped it because of the force of the impact, but the crunch of the lifeless bodies hitting the floor satisfied me, and I kept the katana in place. The blue katana was red with the blood. The ground was the same color, covered with the sticky substance.

I heard some noises from inside as the last few walkers fell. I sprinted inside, forgetting about the mass of bodies laying behind me. I slammed the door shut and started looking for the girl. A sound came from above me, so I sprinted up the stairs. I ran into the nearest section, now taking the time to realize I was in a two story department store. The girl was inside, unharmed. Shelves had fallen all around her, sleeping bags covering the floor. She was holding a pink one with butterflies on it, and I assumed that she had accidentally knocked the other ones over. She saw me and gave me the pistol. I smiled, and gave her a thumbs up sign. She laid her sleeping bag on the floor, and she started to drift off.

I decided that since I was in the place where I was supposed to gather supplies anyways, well, I might as well just gather supplies. I made sure that the store the girl was sleeping in was secure, and I pulled all the sleeping bags into the middle of the store. This one section of the mall was outdoor things, like camping, fishing, stuff we could use. There was a lake by the hospital, maybe half a mile off the back, so I assumed that the fishing gear would be alright. I dragged that to the middle of the room too. I found a few tents, which might come in handy if we ever have to leave the hospital. I ended up stripping the walls bare. I ended up with eight sleeping bags, three tents, four fishing poles, a few cans of worms, lots of energy bars, and four lanterns, with batteries. Wow, I would need something like the RV to bring everything back!

I moved to the next section. There were only four sections on each floor. I ran into the second. This one was the girly clothes section. Great, shopping. I decided that nobody would want a dress, I mean, this is an apocalypse, not a fashion show. I grabbed a few T-shirts and some jeans. I ran back into the outdoor section and chucked the clothing in the pile. Next section! This one was mens clothing. Now it's time to shop for the dudes. This place obviously hadn't been looted. Nothing was out of place. It was so normal that you would have thought that the apocalypse had never happened. I ran through all the guys names in my head. Mitch, Carl, Chandler, and the group at the school if they ever come back. First I looked for an outfit for me, so I could get out of these bloody clothes. I stood in front of a mirror, pulling out outfits to wear. I pulled out a T-shirt and pants. "Nah, too plain." Next I got out a pair of cheap sunglasses and a leather jacket. "Eh, too uncomfortable." Next I pulled out a cheap suit, and a tie. "Aw man, HELL YES! I can go out all James Bond style!" I let out a laugh. I ended up just wearing a white shirt and black pants. I found a bow tie and put it on. Since I was done changing, I shoved all the decent mens clothes into a pile. I carried it into the outdoor section, and then chucked it in the pile.

Next section! It was the appliance section. Nothing here would be _that_ helpful, but there's no harm in looking. Obviously I couldn't drag something like a refrigerator all the way to the hospital, but I could find, like, a blender or something. I walked up and down the rows of dishwashers and washing machines, nothing really catching my eye. I did end up finding that blender, and I just carried it into the outdoor section. I also fell in love with this grill. It wasn't that big, but I could grill anything I could hunt. I thought it was so cool, so I ended up taking it along too.

By this time I had cleared the whole top floor. I started moving to the lower floors. The small lantern I had been using was flickering, and the batteries were nearly dead. I had to make this quick. I walked into the first section downstairs, the outdoor clothing. Winter coats, snow pants, gloves, anything that had to do with the seasons changing. I took all the winter clothing, and piled it at the bottom of the stairs, not wanting to drag them up a flight of steps.

I was flying through these sections. Next was shoes. I grabbed a pair of black converse and threw my old shoes away. I grabbed some boots and tennis shoes, and threw them next to the winter clothes.

Next section was a toy store. I slowed down a little, looking for something for the girl upstairs. I found her a stuffed teddy bear, and a drawing pad and pencils. I carried them upstairs and carefully placed the bear in the girl's hands. Even in sleep, her mouth curled into a smile and she gripped the teddy bear harder. I placed the sketch pad and pencils next to her sleeping bag, and then walked back down the steps.

My mouth hung open in shock. I was so glad that we were in the middle of nowhere, because this whole department store hadn't been looted. This one section... it was amazing. It was the hunting section. All across the walls, there were blades, bows, guns, ammo, any weapon you could ever dream of. I had only started grabbing a gun when the lantern died. It was so dark now that I couldn't help but get tired. I let out a yawn and fell onto the floor. I started to doze off, right as the first few rays of sunshine streamed through the windows.


	40. Chapter 39

39: Alexa

We had finally approached where Logan and Megan had split up. We could tell because of all the bodies littering the ground. I hopped out of the RV, Megan and Maddy by my side, and to our relief there wasn't a body there that belonged to Logan. With no evidence of him being dead, our spirits were lifted. The sun was rising, and we had driven all through the night. Maddy, Megan, and I went back into the RV to alert everyone else. We told them to pile out, so we could split into two groups. "Alright," Maddy started. "One group needs to get the supplies, one group needs to look for Logan. "I'm going to look for Logan." "Me too." Kate, Megan, and I all said at the same time. "I'll get supplies." Chandler stated. "Yeah me too I guess..." Renee mumbled. "Chandler can't go by himself." I nodded, and I saw Maddy doing the same. "Alright, who's taking the RV? Whoever-" Maddy was cut off by a sound coming from the woods. Logan stepped out of the woods, holding something in a blanket. Maddy saw the look in our eyes, and she turned around. Logan started running over, but instead of looking excited he looked scared.

"Guys! I really need help! She's sick!" He shoved the blanket into Maddy's hands. Her face was full of shock as she opened up the blanket. "Was she bit?" Maddy questioned. "No!" Logan yelled. "Just please help her!" Maddy ran into the RV with the little girl. I could sense Megan's unhappiness that Maddy had left, she walked right passed me, like I wasn't there. Not that I cared that much. Kate and Renee dragged Chandler inside. He was a doctor, he could probably help. Logan came over to me. "I thought you were dead!" I said running to meet him. "Deja vu, seems like just yesterday we were saying that to you." He said. I remembered his reaction to my homecoming. Him kissing me. I had never even considered it, I had Jarrett. But he was gone, and now, with Logan standing here, just me and him. "Just one thing is missing" I said as I leaned forward and kissed him. I felt Logan tense but he relaxed, and to my relief, he kissed me back.

I stopped and stepped back. Not a moment too soon, because just then Kate ran outside. _Did she see us?_ I wondered. I felt my face burning red. She ran right up to Logan, and started hugging him. "I _knew_ you were alive! I _just knew_ you couldn't be dead." I could hear her sob in his ear. She stepped back just as quickly remembering their fight. She now wiped sad tears instead of happy ones from her eyes as she fixed Logans clothes. His face was frozen in an expression of shock. "Oh, ya he- ey babe?!" He muttered. 'Should we tell her…?' I mouthed to Logan. He shook his head. I stood there awkwardly for a few moments, then walked into the RV with a sigh. I wondered whether I would try to forget what had just happened between me and Logan. The strange part was that I didn't want to forget.


	41. Chapter 40

40: Maddy

Chandler was taking care of the girl in the back of the RV. We would have to drive back to the hospital right away. We needed the medical supplies back at camp. Kate, Alexa, and Logan crawled in the RV. Alexa came up to the front to sit with me, and Kate dragged Logan to the back to sit with her. "We should talk." I could hear Kate say to him.

We started driving right away, making a u-turn in the middle of the road. Alexa was silent, and I was wondering why. She must have done her little mind reading trick because she started talking. "Sorry I'm quiet… I'm just thinking."

"About what?" I questioned. She squirmed in her seat. "Um… well…" she choked out. I looked in the rear view mirror. I could see Kate and Logan on the couch. "Oh aren't Kate and Logan cute together?!" I said. There was a long pause. "I kissed Logan!" She said. I nearly drove the RV off the road. It jerked, and my head did the same as I looked at Alexa. "You didn't!" I hissed, not wanting Kate to hear. Alexa's head drooped. "I did." She stated. "Everything okay up there?!" A voice yelled. I think it was Logan's. "Yeah, it's great!" I yelled back. I was still staring at Alexa as I drove down the road. I shook my head, and looked forward. "You know, when Kate finds out she'll kill you." I whispered to her. "I won't let her find out..." Alexa whispered back.

I decided to drop the subject. "I wonder if the school group came back while we were gone."

"I hope they didn't." Alexa grimaced. "How do we even know they won't just attack when we get back?" "Well you told me they were good..." I trailed off. Alexa was silent again, lost in thought.

I wondered if things would ever be back to normal. We had found Logan, but we also found a girl we would have to take care of, and now Alexa was kissing Logan! Things were getting weirder and weirder by the day.

"So..." I started. "Think Chandler can save that girl?" Alexa closed her eyes for a moment. "Yeah, I think he can. But... something seems weird." "What is it?" I questioned. She replied, "The girl, I didn't see her, but she seems familiar."

"Maybe you should go see her." I said to Alexa. She nodded, and stepped out of the room. Once she left, Logan took the open spot. "Maddy, I have to tell you something." He urgently whispered. I pulled one hand off the steering wheel and bunched it into a fist. I punched him softly in the forehead. "I already know. You and Alexa kissed. You stupid idiot! How could you do this to Kate! She still loves you ya know." He was speechless for a moment, but then replied with, "We got in a fight before I left with Megan. I think we're broken up."

"No! You idiot!" I repeated, "Kate does love you! You guys can't break up; she'll be devastated!" Logan sighed. "Even though we did kiss, I'm pretty sure it was just a one time thing. It's not like it will happen again."

"Good. Now get back to Kate or I'll punch you harder next time!" I said to him. He stood up and walked back out.

Just then when I thought nothing could get weirder, I heard a cry come from the back. I stopped the RV and ran to the girl. Alexa was standing above her, with a shocked expression. "Alexa? What is it!?" I asked. Alexa looked at me and pointed at the girl. "Th-th-that's my cousin." She seemed to shocked to even believe herself. "That's Kaitlyn, but we call her KK. She really is my cousin."

I smiled. "That's great Alexa! You found your family! Well, at least some of them." Even though I was happy for Alexa, I couldn't help but feel sad. Kate and Renee had each other, Alexa had her cousin, but my family... I didn't even know what happened to them. I walked back to the drivers seat and started letting my mind wander all the way back to the hospital.

The drive was long, but we were back before nightfall. We had all carried KK inside, and it turned out that the group from the school had returned. When we walked inside Carl, Katie, Mitch, Randy, Bentley, Alex, Kendall, and Toby were all waiting for us. I looked as Matisse ran out of a room and came up to Kate. She whispered something in Kate's ear, and Kate followed Matisse back into the room. I helped Chandler carry KK into his office and he started treating her. Alexa followed me out and we walked over by everyone else, soon Kate and Matisse walked out with somebody else. Matisse and Kate walked over to me with this guy. I looked closer. "Is this who I think it is?" I asked Matisse. She nodded. "Yeah it's Gino!" Gino and Matisse had been dating since middle school.

Randy was sitting across from Matisse next to Bentley. He was staring at Gino with a murderous look. Everyone was laying out sleeping bags for the school group. We all just sat in a circle, looking at eachother. Gino broke the silence. "Well this is awkward!" "Well lets have everybody introduce themselves." I said. "I'll start. I'm Maddy. My whole family is missing, I never found them. Before all this started, I was in highschool with Megan, Kate, Renee, Kris-" I paused. "And Gino."

Logan went next. "Sup. Name's Logan. Like Maddy, my family is missing. I knew Maddy before the apocalypse, I just met everyone else."

Kate went next. "I'm Kate! I went to highschool with everyone but just met Logan, well we've known each other for a while now, ok off topic, but uh what was I talking about?" Everyone laughed. "Is there something going on between you two?" Gino asked abruptly pointing to Kate and Logan. "NO! Why? NO!" Logan and Kate replied. "Ya right... moving on." Gino said. Alexa went next. "I'm Alexa. I had a boyfriend once, his name was Jarrett. He... died. My cousin is in that room over there." She pointed into Chandler's office. "I think the rest of my family is dead, but I'm not sure."

Renee went next. "Hi! I'm Renee! I don't like when people swear so don't swear guys! Okay yah, Kate is my twin but I'm the awesome one so don't listen to her if she tells you different. This made everyone laugh except for Kate, who was staring at Renee angrily. "I'm not sure about our family so yah." Matisse went next. "I'm Matisse. I like high heels but I break them when I jump out of buildings. Gino is my boyfriend. We've been dating since middle school, I think it's been six years now? My family is missing. I don't know if they made it out okay because I was at school when this all started." Gino, who was sitting next to her decided to talk next. "I'm Gino, Matisse's boyfriend. I'm really cool and-" He was cut off by the hysterical laughter from everyone in the room, including Matisse. His face turned red, and he started over. "I'm Gino, like I just said. Everyone I know is most likely dead, but I don't care that much because I have Matisse."

It was silent a little while, but then Carl went next. "I'm Carl. I watched my mom and dad die. I don't have any aunts or uncles because both of my parents were only children. My whole family is dead." Gino replied to Carl's story. "Wellllllll... that's great!" He said sarcastically.

Mitch went next. "Hi, I'm Mitch. I believe that the government forced this disease upon us and we should rebel! By the way, does anyone have hand sanitizer?" Everyone ignored Mitch's insanity and let Katie go next. "I went to highschool with all those people and I was Logan's friend. Oh yeah there was this time when I shoved a piece of glass in Mitch's face and that was really funny. So I guess my brothers are dead, along with Cole who was my boyfriend. I don't know what happened to my parents. By the way, name's Katie."

Megan decided to go next. "I'm Megan! I went to school with all those people." She pointed at me, then Kate, Renee, Matisse, and Gino. "They are all my friends. So yeah, we were all at school when this started. Maddy skipped. Since she got the weapons, maybe her skipping saved our lives. But I don't know what happened to my family. Maybe I'll find them someday."

Everyone in our group had gone. Now it was the group from the schools' turn. Kendall went first. "My name is Kendall. I had a sister and a brother. My brother turned and bit my sister, and I killed them both. My parents both got out of our house okay but I never found out if they made it out of the neighborhood. My best friend died when we came here to steal supplies." She quickly flashed me a look of apology. "But everyone sitting next to me made it out okay so I'm happy about that. Well, except Randy. Nobody really likes Randy." "Hey!" Randy yelled. "You shut your mouth asshole! I'll fucking kill you!" Everyone started laughing.

Randy took this as an invitation to go next. "Name's Randy. Bentley here is my girlfriend. I killed my father before this started. He was divorced with my mom and he was drunk and tried to kill her. I stepped in the way and got him. I didn't go to jail because it was self defence but I was never treated the same way again. Right when this started my mom got bit and she died. My brother shot her but he got bit too. He shot himself in the head. I don't know about my other brother."

Bentley went next, doing a hairflip that made the whole room smell like cheap hairspray. "I'm Bentley. I had a sister but she died a long time ago. She got really sick. My brother is still okay I think, but I haven't seen him since this all started. My parents both teach at schools so I'm not sure what happened to them. I have other family but I don't know what happened to them either."

Toby went next. "I'm Toby. Alex is one of my best friends. Gabe was a great friend too but he got bit. I'm the youngest out of five siblings. Everyone in my family had a safe spot to stay. They wouldn't let me in because they thought I was bit. I wandered around for awhile until Alex and Gabe had found me. They brought me back to their group."

Alex went next. "Name's Alex. I found Toby. He's my best friend. My whole life before the apocalypse sucked. I don't have any siblings. My parents both died and I was homeless. To tell the truth, the apocalypse actually made my life better."

At that moment, Chandler walked out carrying KK. She was sleeping, and Chandler put her in the pink sleeping bag Logan had brought along. Kate protested that the pink sleeping bag was for her but settled for the blue one next to Logan. Alexa quickly said, "Watch out. That's KK. She may look harmless now, but she's tougher than she looks." Everyone laughed, not taking Alexa seriously. Chandler looked at the group. "I'm Chandler. I'm a doctor. I went to a special medical school where I learned about every disease except this one. I'm trying to look for a cure but there is nothing I can find."

"Chandler, what would you need to search for a cure?" I asked him. "I need lots of items. They could all be found in the warehouse next to the department store, but we see how that worked last time." "Well if we can find a cure it would be worth it!" I stood up and addressed the group. "Guys, it looks like we're going back for those supplies."


	42. Chapter 41

41: Maddy

Everyone was staring at me with shocked expressions. "What?!" Megan yelled. "We almost died last time!"

"But this time we'll take the RV! We can do this!" I replied. Logan sighed. "Lets talk about this in the morning. First we need to get assigned rooms for everyone.

It took awhile, but because every room had two beds, we got everything sorted. There were six rooms on the first floor, and the second floor had two rooms, Chandler's office, and storage. In the basement there was a cafeteria, infirmary, laundry room, and the experiment room.

The first room on the first floor was for Logan and Mitch. When they found out they were stuck together they used the curtains to make a makeshift wall between them, and they sat in silence on their beds. The second room belonged to Kendall and Bentley. They too hated each other, and made their own curtain barricade. Third room on the left belonged to Kate and Renee. They were happy to have a room together, considering that there were worse people to be teamed up with. The next room which was the first on the right was given to Gino and Matisse. Next room was given to Katie and Randy. The last room on the first floor was given to Toby and Alex. Megan, Alexa, KK, Carl, and I all still needed rooms. Chandler had his office. We moved KK and Carl into the smaller room on the second floor. Megan decided that she wanted the small room with the good view, and Alexa and I bunked into the big room on the second floor. It was late by the time we all had our rooms, so we all went to sleep.

It seemed like morning came too fast. Everyone met up in the open space on the second floor, so we could discuss whether we would go back or not. Before we had even started, Logan walked over to me. "I'll go," He said. "I gathered lots of supplies there and I couldn't bring them all back." I nodded. "We're not sure if we're even going, but if we are then you can come too." He looked pleased, and then walked over to everyone else. Alexa ran up to me next. "Are you sure it's safe for Logan to come? My vision may still happen, even though we prevented it once." "Yeah he has to come. It's safe if we're all with him. We just can't let him get separated from us." Alexa sighed. She looked as if Logan coming would be the death of us all. After a moment, she added. "I'm going too." There was no arguing with her, so I nodded.

"Everyone, if we get to the warehouse over by the mall, we might be able to actually cure this disease. Even if none of you wish to go, Logan, Alexa, and I are definitely going." Megan and Chandler shot their hands up at the same time. "I'm going." They both said. Megan walked over and stood next to Logan, and Chandler followed and stood next to Alexa.

Kate volunteered next. She walked over and stood by Logan. Within the next minute, Matisse hd joined too. That left Katie, Kendall, Bentley, Randy, Alex, Renee, Gino, Mitch, and Gabe to look over the place. I walked over to Alexa and whispered in her ear, "Can we trust them? The only person here that is from our group is Katie." Megan looked annoyed that I was keeping secrets with Alexa. She opened her mouth to ask what we were talking about, but Alexa cut her off. "Yeah. I think Randy's the only one who would even try, but he likes Katie a little bit." "Oh my god, Randy likes everyone." I smirked.

It looked like everyone was getting fidgety. I started talking again. "Everyone who is coming, grab your weapon of choice, and some food and water in case you get separated. Everyone else, just work on small things. Somebody could go in the sewer pipe in the basement. Clear it out, look for an escape if we ever needed one. Someone could go hunting. I don't know, just do anything that you think could help.

The meeting had ended. People started walking off in different directions. I called after them, "We're leaving in ten minutes!"


	43. Chapter 42

42: Megan

Ugh! This was so stupid!

Logan was the one who attracted the zombies in the first place! He was the one who nearly got killed! He was the one who made us get separated! And now because of him, we have to go back for the supplies that he couldn't carry.

It's not all bad though. I guess being able to cure this virus would be great. But still, going back could be really dangerous.

I was in my room, packing. I chose a really great room in the hospital. Sure it was smaller than a normal room, but one full wall was a window. I could see miles all around. It was a lot better than being in the big room, being paired with Alexa.

Alexa and I have started hating each other even more. She acts like she's so cool and she can handle anything. She keeps secrets from me and I hate it.

I shoved my new weapon in my backpack. It was a gun with a sharp blade duct taped to the front. I had always wanted a weapon like this, and now I had one. It was so cool! I ran into the basement quickly to grab a few cans of food. We were going to move the food upstairs, but we hadn't yet.

I ran outside, into the RV. I was the first in, and I waited for Maddy. The door swung open. I looked up, expecting to see Maddy, but instead it was Alexa. I sighed as she sat as far away from me as she could. It was silent for awhile, but then I broke it. "What were you talking to Maddy about? Why did she whisper?"

"It's nothing important." Alexa said without skipping a beat. "Nothing you would care about." "Well I do care. Maddy doesn't keep secrets, or at least if she does then she's really good at it. That must have been important, because she whispered it in your ear right then. She would have waited until later."

Alexa laughed. "Yes, Maddy is good at keeping secrets, but believe me, I know more about her than you e_ver_ will." I felt my face burn red. Alexa was really getting on my nerves now. "Oh yeah?! Like what?!"

"Well, I know that her favorite movie is 13 going on 30. I also know that she always puts her right shoe on first. She writes left handed, but does everything else with her right. She kissed Logan when she was young and she's never told Kate. She's had a crush on Mitch since the 6th grade and never told him, or anyone else. She hasn't even told me. I just know."

My anger was turning to shock. "Really?" "Yeah. I do know." "No not that. I mean really? Mitch? She can do so much better than him." Alexa and I both laughed. When she realized that she was laughing at my joke, she stopped and turned away. "But really," I asked. "How do you know?" "It's bound to come out sometime. I can't keep a secret like this forever." I started to protest, but then Maddy walked in. I didn't want to talk about it while Maddy was here. I sighed, and walked over to the drivers room.

"Hey Madds!" I smiled. Maddy looked uncomfortable for a second. I think she knew what I was going to ask her about. "So... what did you whisper in Alexa's ear earlier today?" "Um... nothing really."

"Um, well yeah it had to be something because you whispered it."

"Alexa wouldn't want me to tell you, so I shouldn't" I sighed. There was no way that she was going to tell me. I stood up, and walked to the back of the RV. Nearly everyone was there. We were just waiting for Matisse.

As if on cue, she walked in. She sat down, and then Logan walked into the driver room and I heard him say, "Ready to go." The RV started moving and I walked to go sit by Kate.


	44. Chapter 43

43: Alexa

We had been driving all day. We were pulling up to the warehouse and department store. Before the RV could even stop, Chandler was already jumping out, yelling his battle cry. "For scienceeeeeee!" Maddy stopped the RV so she didn't hit him. We all piled out. Chandler and Gino went over to the warehouse, and everyone else went into the department store. The first thing I saw was so amazing, "Shoes!" Matisse and I ran over.

Matisse picked up a pair of boots. "Ooh these are cute!" She said. "No! I need a new pair of combat boots! They're mine!" I yelled. She pulled them away from me so I threatened her with my sword. "Matisse. Give. Me. The. Shoes." She dropped them on the ground and slowly backed away. She turned around and saw high heels. "Ah my god! No more damn duct tape!" She pulled off her falling apart high heels and threw them behind her. The heel flew off and smacked me in the eye. I got mad and chucked my sword at her. It only missed chopping off a foot of her hair because she tackled the high heel display.

Next thing I saw was weapons. Maddy was already there, inspecting a new crossbow. I ran over to join her. I began browsing through the throwing knives. I then looked up saw the most beautiful thing to exist in the apocalypse. "Oh. ." I ran over to the display case that reached the ceiling. All of it filled with swords of every shape, size, and weight. "Why do they even have this here?" I whispered to myself. I broke the lock and ripped open the door. I saw it. The most perfect thing in the world. A golden sword. Also called a xiphos. The design was originally greek. This is the sword I had been trained with, but in the chaos of things, I got stuck with a katana. I hated that stupid thing. I pulled it off the shelf and held it. That was much better. Even the weight was perfect! "What did you find Alexa?" Maddy shouted. "Come look!" Maddy ran down the aisle. When she saw me she stopped. "Oh my God" I could only imagine what I looked like right now. When I get really happy I kind of...glow. Logan ran down the aisle behind Maddy. "Woah...What's with Alexa?" Maddy quickly replied with "Nothing you need to know." I finally spoke. "Hey, Logan, want my Katana, I don't need it anymore," Logan held up the sword he held in his hand. "No thanks, I think I'm going to use this one." I grabbed the sword from his hand. "Why would you use this piece of crap?" The sword was cheap and would break pretty soon, so I might as well help him see that. I snapped the sword in half with my bare hands. Maddy just smiled while Logan stared then quickly regained his composure. "Yeah, what was I thinking?" He said as he picked up one of the broken halves and attempted to break it, to no prevail. I just walked away to let Logan try to figure out how I did it.

I decided I better head upstairs and check the rest of the place out.


	45. Chapter 44

44: Logan

Alexa was walking off, as I was straining to break her sword. _Ugh._ I chucked it on the ground, leaving everyone laughing because I couldn't break it. It looked like she was about to go upstairs, but I already knew that anything valuable that she could find would just be in a pile on the ground. I had placed it there the last time I came. I couldn't bring it all back, but hopefully nobody had taken it while we were gone. I decided to direct my attention back to the weapons. They were lined up on the shelves, in cases, and they had never even been used. I grabbed Alexa's old Katana, and I shoved it through my belt. The glass case holding the guns was locked, so I swung at it with one of the chairs nearby. There was a clink and then the glass shattered into tiny fragments, spilling over everything.

Everyone jumped at the noise. I reached down into the case, trying to avoid the glass shards. I pulled out the first gun and placed it into my backpack. I looked at the little placemat that told what kind of gun it was. I ended up pulling out two rifles, one AK-47, a M-14, four handheld pistols, and a couple snipers. When I was pulling out the last gun, I accidentally banged my arm into the side of the case. Blood started pouring out of my arm, and I could feel a few glass shards sinking in.

_Damn, that hurts. _I jumped over the counter and opened all the drawers, looking for a few bandages. In the first drawer I found some cigarettes and some matches. The cigarettes wouldn't be much help, but the matches would. I placed them into my backpack. The next drawer was just a junk drawer, but I did find some bandages. I wrapped them around my cut. "OMG Logan are you okay?" I looked to my right, and Kate was standing there, staring wildly at my arm. "Uh...yeah. I just cut it on the glass. It doesn't hurt that much."

"Good." Kate smiled. "Let me help you." She grabbed my arm and pulled me to the back of the store, where we were all alone.

"Logan..." she started, slowly wrapping bandages around my arm. "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry about what happened before. I mean yeah you were still being a huge jerk but I was kinda-maybe just a little bit-being a jerk too...so I don't really know what I'm trying to say but..." then she looked right into my eyes. "You really could have died when you got seperated from Megan. You could have been dead, and the last time we talked we had a huge fight. I'm really glad you're okay. I- I'm just sorry for everything." She started giving me a hug, and I gave her one back. "Me too." I replied. But I had so much more to be sorry about than she did. I had actually kissed Alexa, and liked it too. I wasn't even sure who I liked anymore. But at this moment I hugged Kate tight because I knew that the vision I had earlier was real. If I had died, Kate would have shot me in the head, and I would have never seen her again. No matter how much I loved her, tomorrow one of us could be dead. It had taken me too long to realize this, but I finally understand that none of us are safe. All I can do now is keep Kate wrapped in my arms, and hope that we make it out okay.


	46. Chapter 45

45: Megan

Kate and Logan passed me as they headed to the back of the store. I was still browsing through the weapons. I was just looking for something to carry. I found a camouflage pocket knife that I liked. I placed it into my backpack. I found some clips for my gun, and I attached a nice scope to it. I walked upstairs to see what was up there. I heard yelling from the back. I ran over, just to see that Alexa and Matisse were fighting over a pair of jeans.  
"… NO! IT'S MINE!" "I SAW IT FIRST!" "WELL I GRABBED IT FIRST!" "WELL THAT'S ONLY BECAUSE YOU WERE CLOSER! I SAW IT FIRST!" I quietly walked around them, not taking my eyes off them. Once I was on the other side I slowly backed away. Chandler was standing next to me, and his mouth was hanging open as he watched them fight. This was totally a new side to Alexa. Matisse, not so much.  
I browsed through the shelves. I was looking for a new outfit, because my usual outfit was getting ripped apart. I pulled a yellow tank top off of a shelf and looked at it. I found a black cut off shirt with a yellow smiley face that matched the tank top. Then I went to the pants section, and I found a pair that was literally the EXACT SAME as the ones Matisse and Alexa were fighting over. They were ripped skinny jeans. I found some yellow tights to wear under them. I walked into the store bathrooms to change, and then I walked back out. My old dirty tennis shoes didn't really go with my outfit, and they were too old to last much longer anyways. I walked downstairs to the shoes section and got some black combat boots. I passed Logan and Kate on the way down. They were holding hands, and grinning ear to ear.  
When I came down I realized that now everyone was upstairs except me. It was quiet down here. I walked over to the shoes section, and started looking. It was quiet before, but now it was eerily silent. I started looking around, when I saw something. The front doors to the store were made of glass. It seems weird that the glass was still unbroken, but I guess the walkers just never had a reason to come inside. After all, there were never any people here, right?  
The silence was broken by a gunshot. One of the glass doors shattered. I ducked, and the air whistled as it flew where my head had been a second later. It exploded into the wall behind me, causing dust to fly everywhere. I heard footsteps thundering above my head, and people immediately started running out of the stairwell. Logan came first, holding one of his new guns. Kate was nearly sticking to him, they were so close. She was gripping a M-14 in her hands. Maddy was next, followed by Alexa and Matisse. Everyone was holding a gun, and they pointed them at the doors. Maddy started barking orders. "Shoot first, ask questions later! We don't know how many of them there are!" Another gunshot rang out, and another window shattered, but this one came from an entirely different direction. "Somebody's trying to mess with us!" I screamed as I pulled out my gun-sword thing. "It seems like you've played enough first person shooters to know what's going on, so why don't you tell us what to do?" Alexa sarcastically yelled back. My face felt warmer and I could feel it turning red. More gunshots rang out, and all the windows on this floor were taken out.  
Still within my vision, I saw Alexa step to the side, a bullet barely missing her shoulder. Within the chaos, nobody would notice... My mind started racing, forming an idea. I was sick of Alexa. I was Maddy's right hand girl, and then Alexa came along, and ruined everything. I raised my gun, and looked through the scope. I waited until Alexa's head was in the scope, and my finger rested on the trigger.  
I've killed people before. How can you survive without killing? People oppose us, and we shut them down. But Alexa? She was an ally, and even though I hated her, she was important. I couldn't just shoot her...  
But I wanted to. It's not like that many people would care. Only Maddy and Logan even like her. Kate thinks she's pretty cool, but she doesn't really hang around her much. What would happen if she was just... gone? My finger gripped down on the trigger, and I really think I was going to pull it. I actually _did_ pull it, but by the time I had the courage, the chaos was ending. I couldn't feel it, but everyone had their eyes on me. Logan slapped the gun out of my hand as the bullet whizzed out. It slammed into the ground, just a few inches from Alexa's foot.  
I turned to look at Logan. He hadn't even known me before the apocalypse, and now he was looking at me like I was insane. His eyes were wild with fear, and they resembled everyone elses.  
Except Alexa's. She was sitting there with contempt, as if she _knew_ I was going to shoot her. Everyone was silent, staring at eachother, and then the chaos erupted again. Whoever was shooting at us, they hadn't stopped. There was the familiar cracking sound of a gunshot, and then Alexa was on the ground. The smug look on her face was replaced with shock, and she was gripping her side.  
Blood started pouring out of her. Everyone inside, including me, started running over to the windows; looking outside for our pursuers. Logan and Matisse started firing, but there was nobody outside my window. Maddy was next to Alexa, looking horrified. She turned towards me and we caught each other's eyes. She knew I wasn't the one who shot Alexa, but I might as well be. She looked _pissed._ She sat back, knowing that there was nothing she could do, but wait.


	47. Chapter 46

46: Alexa

There was a moment where I was dead. I heard the gunshot and the next thing I knew, the world was black.  
I had never known how it would feel to die-obviously-but it was nothing like how I imagined it. I was in an ocean, but it was filled with blood instead of water. I could still hear gunshots, and I assumed that it was my friends, still shooting at the enemies. It was silent at first, but then I could hear voices. It sounded like someone was arguing. A hazy shape stepped out of the shadows, a lone person standing on the shore of the sea of blood. I couldn't tell who it was, but then he spoke. I immediately knew.  
Jarrett's mouth opened, and I could hear him talk. He told me that it wasn't my time to die. "But I was shot in the side! I'm bleeding out!" "That's just an illusion. Yes, you are bleeding; but this ocean of blood is just your nightmare." "But what do I do?!" I screamed, as the waves got bigger, and started thrashing me around. I went under, and I was suffocating. I could still hear his voice. "You know what to do."

"_You know what to do."_ What was he talking about?! I started thinking. My head felt hot, and I was starting to freak out. I needed oxygen, or I would die. I assumed that this was a dream, but it felt so real, and if I died here... I'd be gone.

All of a sudden I started lifting out of the ocean. I wasn't sure what had happened, but I felt different. I had been thinking about how everyone would feel if I was dead, and I didn't want to die.

And then I remembered what Jarrett was talking about. A long time ago, before we had even gone to school together, we had been playing in the woods. Jarrett had fallen into the lake, and he couldn't swim. I was only six at the time, and I was terrified. I was just thinking about how I didn't want him to die, and then he rose out of the lake, and he was okay. I had told my parents about it, and they got pretty scared. They wiped my memory of the day, and they wiped Jarretts too. It had taken me this long to get that memory back. Suddenly Jarretts face was no longer blurry. I could see every striking feature. A grin spread across his face. "I'll miss you Alexa, and I want to see you. But... I can wait." And then a beam of light appeared in front of him, and he stepped into it. The light disappeared, and he was gone along with it. And then the vision started to fade.

I sat up, with a crazy looking Maddy staring at me. There was blood all over the ground, but my wound was completely gone. If Megan had shot me in the head, I would have immediately died, but the shot in the side had given me enough time to recover. The gunshots ceased. "I think we got them all." Megan said plainly. She turned around to look at me, and she looked just as shocked as Maddy. Everyone saw what was going on, and they started walking over. "H-how did you do that?" Kate asked. "I don't know... it was nothing." I lied. Megan saw right through it. "Yes you do know! You've been keeping secrets ever since you got here! Tell us NOW or I'll... I'll shoot you!" She raised up the gun and pointed it my general direction. "Megan, ENOUGH!" Maddy yelled. She stepped in front of me. Megan looked at Maddy like she was insane. "Maddy, you're my best friend! And you know her secrets, so why won't you tell me?" "I have my reasons... If I tell then somebody could get hurt." "Well you're hurting me! Just TELL US!" Maddy let out a sigh of defeat. "Alexa, go ahead and tell her." I opened my mouth to protest, but Megan raised the gun to my head.

"Oh man... theres no way out of this." I mumbled. I looked at Megan, who was outraged. "Okay. I don't even know what to say, because you won't believe it. You already think I'm a liar, and now this will push you off the deep end. Even if I do tell the truth, you'll shoot me." "Just. Tell. Me." I didn't know what to say. Tell the truth, she knows my secrets. Tell a lie, and be shot in the head. Both options were not very preferable.

Growing up, my family never knew what was wrong with me, I had been having premonitions to tragedies since I was 5. When I was 14 years old and an outcast along with Jarrett, who I had known since I started having the visions, the school found us. The school was created for people like us, people who are different. I had a younger sister too. She was only 2 years younger then me, and you could tell she had abilities as well. Same with my cousins. Ever since I started going to school I have been trained to be a warrior, it's what I was born to do. So when the walkers came, they put the school in lockdown. Jarrett and I escaped because we could fight; because we _wanted_ to fight.

At the school, we were taught that nobody could know our secrets. That was how we would survive. If somebody knew what we were, there would be no stopping them from attacking us, to learn our secrets, and try to take them for themselves. Megan wasn't ambitious in a bad way, she was just overpowered by her hatred of me. She didn't want my powers, but she wanted to know why I was so... different. No matter the stakes, I still couldn't tell her.

"Megan, shoot me if you want. I can't tell you. I was taught to keep it a secret since I was born." Megan let out a short laugh, and then replied, "You fuckin' kidding me? It's not just me, I'm pretty sure EVERYONE here wants to know!" She gestured around to everyone, and pointing to Chandler last. _Chandler!_ I had nearly forgotten he was even here! I looked at him, and he was trying to let me read his mind.

_Do it._ He thought. _End of the world anyways. Might as well let her know._

I nodded to him, and stared at Megan. "You know why I know so much about everything? You know why I know everyone so well? Because I can _read minds_!I can read your mind right now! Jarrett could do it too! We read each others minds! I knew you were going to shoot me before you even pointed that gun at my head. Doesn't matter, I got shot anyways. I healed myself though, because reading minds isn't my only power." Megan knew that I was different, but she still didn't believe me.

"Prove it then!" She screamed. "How can you prove it?!" "Like this." I calmly said. I looked at Chandler, and he knew what to do. I had ordered him through my thoughts. God, I love being special! Chandler grabbed the gun from Megan and threw it to me. I caught it with one hand and then shot Megan in the stomach.

I looked to everyone. "Should I heal her? You saw what she did. I can prove my powers to her by healing her, or I can just let her die. Your choice." Everyone looked uncomfortable. Kate was fidgety. She was friends with Megan after all. Logan looked like he was confused. Megan and Kate were friends, but Megan and I were enemies. He looked as if he wasn't sure if Megan should live or die. Chandler definitely looked like he was leaning towards the 'death' side. Matisse broke the silence. "I can't tell you how many times Megan has called me 'Matisselzz' and I have wanted her dead. But you know, she's still my friend, and if you can stop her from dying, then you should do it."

Then Maddy stepped over. "Megan is my friend too. She doesn't always understand that I can't tell her everything, but I don't want her dead either. Go ahead Alexa, do it."

I was irritated for a moment. Just two minutes ago, I had been the one at gunpoint, but did Megan try to heal me? No, she was off in Megan land, skipping through fields of flowers, singing the 'Alexa is dead' song. And here I was, saving her sorry ass from a wound I had inflicted on her. Well, shooting her was fun enough. I grinned at the thought of the look on her face as she fell. I walked over until I was next to her. I kicked her in the side just for good measure. "It was good while it lasted. I actually liked having you dead." Then I kneeled down beside her and placed my hands on her wound. The blood started drying up, and her eyes started opening. "Was that a dream, or did I rise out of a pit of blood after being shot in the stomach by you, being assisted by Chandler?" "No, you're dead." Alexa said sarcastically. Megan retorted back, "Well, you're here. Must be in hell."

"Hey! She just saved your life, be grateful!" Logan yelled at her. "Yeah, after she shot me!"

"Well you deserved it! You nearly killed me! I wouldn't have even saved you if it weren't for Maddy and Matisse!" Alexa chimed in. "Matisse?" Megan asked. "But... MATISSELZZZZZ YOU DID THAT FOR ME?!"

"Yep, should have left her for dead." Matisse mumbled under her breath, too quiet for Megan to hear.


	48. Chapter 47

47: Megan

I took in what Alexa just said, and what I had replied back. She replied saying that I'd be dead if it wasn't for Matisse and Maddy. I called Matisse her nickname 'Matisselz' really wondering why she stuck up for me... But Alexa only said those two names. Weren't there more? Kate would most definitely stand up for me, we've been friends for so long and I could tell her almost anything. Even when we were younger she did stuff like help organize getting me a new bunny before my back surgery! And Renee? I tell her everything even if she won't get it. I even told who I liked when I was younger...shit did she tell anyone? Wait why am I doubting her! Best person to trust! Did only 2 of my friends, whom Matisse doesn't know me as well as the others and Maddy seems to be slipping away, only stand up? All of my friends I've made is too big to count. When I was younger I finally gave up on hating Kristie and that was the only enemy I've had besides Alexa. Kristie was big bully who ended up stealing a bunch of my friends. I never forgot about that. A light bulb went off in my head. Alexa reminded me of Kristie. Now I know why we don't get along! She stole my friends and turned them against me...Alexa had stolen Maddy and possibly Kate and Renee. Alexa made me feel weak, useless, like a loser, and friendless which killed me inside. She also bullied me and never let me do what I wanted...had Alexa begun this bullying portion already? I let out a squeal of defeat and uncomfortableness at all of those thoughts and memories that had arise in me. I heard a laugh and realized that it was Alexa. Shit she just flippin read my mind! I found myself with a red face and sweaty palms. Scared. Alexa let out a laugh. Shit yet again she heard all of that. I hated that. I am sometimes my own worst enemy. I took a look at everyone in the group. Maddy. Kate. Renee. Alexa. And finally Matisse who I gave a weak smile. She did stand up for me, right? Why be mean to her? I turned my feet and marched out the doors to the outside world. Away from the group and to the R.V. in which I would sit down and calm myself. I looked down a realized my clothes already looked pretty bad. I found another shirt that I loved and the matching tank top.

Nobody else was in the RV at the moment. I was sitting there in silence for a moment, but then I just couldn't take it. Everyone was mad at me, and only two people had stood up for me when I was dying on the floor. I had to get away, even if it was only for a little while. I grabbed the shirt that had the gunshot hole in it, and pulled out a sharpie. I scribbled the note on the torn up shirt. It read:

_In case you haven't noticed I've been have some trouble thinking here. I'm not happy here. I'm leaving to go clear my head. Don't come looking for me. I'm going after those people who were shooting at us. I'm only coming back if I kill them all. And if I don't... I'll be dead._

I made sure I had everything in my bag, and then I ran out of the RV, before anyone could come out looking for me. I saw the road we had come from, and I saw hills in the distance. Somewhere on the horizon, there was a small speck of light. I looked closer, and saw smoke rising. It looked like a campfire. I started hiking in that direction, while at the same time pulling out my gun in case anyone was lingering behind. It was getting louder the farther I trekked. There was crazed laughing, and people yelling at eachother. I was getting so close that I could smell the smoke. I ducked down and stalked behind a bush. I moved a few of the branches to look at what was going on.

There were six people. Each sitting around the campfire on different logs. Four of them were men, and two were women. They were all clutching bottles of whiskey, and were obviously wasted. There were two other guys standing next to them, holding guns. They were both flashing nervous glances at each other. "Yeah boss, we killed all those people at the mall. We lost Crowley and Jacob though."

"Good." One of the men at the campfire said with a slurred voice. "If they were still alive I would kill both of you right now on the spot. You did good though. Go ahead, you can eat." He pointed at a picnic table covered in food. The two guys looked shocked that they were actually allowed to eat, and they ran over and started eating. One of the other men kicked something on the ground. "Go fetch me another bottle." A guy crawled out. His wrists were zip tied, but his hands were free. I looked closer, and realized that I knew the guy! His sweatshirt was torn and bloody, and the hood was covering his face, but I could tell that it was the same guy that had saved me and my friends from the walkers at the pharmacy. The drunk people seemed to be in charge. It wouldn't be so hard to pick them off. I raised my M-14 at the first man, who had kicked his slave. I fired and he fell. _Bullseye!_ I thought. The people started screaming, but they were too drunk to really know what was going on. I fired again, and again, they fell one by one.

The ones who were eating saw that the people in charge were dead, and they looked happy for a moment. They immediately dropped their weapons and put their hands up. "We're not with them! They were keeping us as slaves!" The third kid stood up. "Me too." He growled in that fake deep tone of his.

I stepped out of the bush I had been sniping from. One of the guys looked shocked. "Bosses were shot by a _girl?!"_ The other guy then burst out laughing. The third guy-the one I knew, was silent. I walked over to him, but I could tell that he couldn't see me through his hood.

"Who are you? You never let me see your face. This is the second time we've met." The kid replied, "Why does it matter if you know what I look like? Everywhere I've been, all they do is make me work. I can usually escape, and they can't track me because they don't know who I am, or what I look like."

By the end of his sentence, his voice was changing. Coming back to what I think his voice actually sounds like. He sounded familiar, but I wasn't sure just yet. "Do you remember me? I was the person you saved from the pharmacy? You took me to Logan's house! It's me, Megan!" "Megan?" He asked. This time, there was no mistaking who it was. I reached out, and lifted the hood away from his face. "Luke..." I whispered. His blonde hair was longer, and it was grown over his eyes. He brushed the hair out of his face so he could see me. "It is you..." He mumbled. He reached out to give me a hug, and I hugged him back. He kind of moved back once we were hugging. "Sorry... I'm not really used to hugs. It's usually kicking... and punching. Oh, by the way, these people are Paul, who never shuts up and Simon, the smart guy. Who also never shuts up.

"Yeah, I think this whole apocalypse was caused by the government." Simon said.

"Simon, there was never a government mentioned this whole entire time!" Paul replied. Then Luke turned to us. "Simon thinks that _everything _is caused by the government." "Not true!" Simon yelled. Then he smiled. "Yeah, I guess you're right." This time when everyone laughed, Luke joined in. It sounded like it was a fake laugh, like he had forgotten how to do it, but at least it was a start. No matter what would happen now, I had Luke. When I would go back to see everyone at the hospital, I would have Luke. I would _always_ have Luke.


	49. Chapter 48

48: Kate

Wow... that was awkward. Megan had run outside, and she had climbed into the RV. She just needed some space I guess, but I wish I could make her feel better.  
Alexa had scared the hell out of me earlier. I was going to speak out for Megan to live, but Alexa looked so mad that I was too afraid. I hope Megan wasn't mad at me...  
Trying to get my mind off Megan, I started looking around me. I was in a department store, nobody was here to fight me for what clothes I wanted, and everything was free. This was like a dream come true. Even considering that it was the middle of the apocalypse, this was the awesomest moment of my life. I let go of Logan's hand, and walked over to the shoes. You know what they say, shopping before relationships! Or did I get that saying wrong...? My mind was wandering as I picked up some brown boots. I tried them on, and they fit perfectly! I tied up the laces, and I looked at them again. I looked at the price tag. If it wasn't the zombie apocalypse, these shoes would be 300$! SCORE! I kept the boots on as I walked upstairs.  
I was literally skipping through the isles. _And this shirt is mine, and this shirt is mine, and so is this one! And these jeans are mine, and these leggings are mine, and this hat is mine, and this scarf is mine! This jacket is miiiiiiiiiiiiiine!_  
I was carrying a mountain of clothes. Megan was crazy, only picking out one outfit. I could wear a new combination of clothes every day for three months! The outfit that I had just put on consisted of my boots, a pair of black leggings, a gray hat and a matching scarf, I had on a light blue long sleeve shirt, with a sheer pink underlay and an awesome pink bow in my hair peeking out underneath my hat.  
Once I walked out of the dressing room I quickly rushed to pick out an outfit for Renee. Purple skinny jeans, a purple flowy shirt, a purple jacket, purple sunglasses, tall black boots, and a purple hat. "Perfect!" I stated. "Uggg what kind of store doesn't have any carts?" I couldn't see in front of me. "Holy crap!" I could hear Logan shout from in front of me. "Haha... Uhh ya, just be thankful we don't have to pay for anything." I blushed. He slowly took all the clothes from grasp and set them down near his feet. "Woah." He said. "Oh yeah, you like?" I said modeling my new look. "Damn girl!"  
"Oh stop it!"  
"I can't help it baby... Wow."  
"Hey! Thats the first time you've called me baby since the fight. Does that mean...?"  
"Please?" He replied. My cheeks were red. "But if you're going to be my boyfriend we need to get you some new clothes."  
Logan sighed. "Why can't I just wear this forever?"  
"Because you've been wearing it for months, its covered in blood, and it smells like corpses. So you're getting a new outfit today!"  
"Fine." Logan mumbled. "But I'm telling you, this is a bad idea." I grabbed his arm and dragged him over to the mens clothes section. "Ok, so first we need some pants! What kind do you want?" "The uh... two legged kind?" _This kid knows nothing about clothes._ "Logan... do you want jeans or-" "Yeah I want jeans! Wait, that is what I'm wearing now right?" "Yeah." I sighed rolling my eyes.  
Logan tripped and hit the shelf. It crashed onto the ground, sending jeans flying everywhere. He scooped up the nearest ones. "I'll uh... go try these on." He bounded off into the dressing room, leaving a trail of destruction behind him.  
He appeared a minute later, wearing some torn blue jeans. "Are you sure you want to wear those? It's cold outside, and there are holes in those."  
"Yeah!" He replied. "They look cool!" I sighed. _What else can he do to screw himself this winter?_ Dear life, that was a rhetorical question. Logan picked up a sky blue t-shirt. "Logan, it's FREEZING outside. There's snow on the ground. You can't just wear a t-shirt." "But I like this t-shirt!"  
"Well at least grab a sweatshirt or something."  
"No! You can't make meeeeeeee!" He ran into the dressing room. I chased after him. "Logan! You will DIE!" He closed the door before I went inside. I was banging on the door. "LOGAN I WILL GET YOU TO WEAR A SWEATSHIRT IF IT KILLS ME!" He opened the door, wearing his new shirt. "I won't get cold, I promise!"  
He started walking down the steps. I grabbed a sweatshirt off the rack. It was navy blue. He would get cold, and he would thank me later for grabbing this. I did this awkward jog to catch up to Logan, who was just nearing the shoes. He was looking at them, then knocking them on the ground if he didn't like them. "Logan! What are you doing?" "I'm looking for shoes. Duh!"  
"But you... nevermind..." He grabbed this one shoebox, and opened it up. "Ooooo! Blue converse!"  
"Converse are too flat and will make your feet sore." I protested. I ripped the box away from his hands and set them carefully back on the shelf. I was really surprised that nobody had come to ask what we were doing. I guess it was normal by now.  
I grabbed a new pair of shoes. They were blue Nikes, but the checkmark on the side was green. "Hey Logan, what about these?" I asked. "No." He quickly replied.  
"Logan you haven't even looked at these yet." He grabbed them out of my hands. "Oooooooo these are cool." He looked at converse."Pff, OVER IT!" He put on the new shoes and tied them. "They're a little big, but they'll work."

_Finally, he's cooperating. _I took this as my chance. "Hey Logan, you want to go out to the RV? There's something I want to show you." I lied. "Okay!" He grinned. I walked outside, and he followed me. It was a short walk from the store to the RV, but Logan was already shivering. "Are you cold?" I asked him. "N-no!" He replied. "Oh, then I guess getting this was a waste." I pulled out the sweatshirt and threw it to him. He caught it. "Um... no, it's fine." He put it on, and then we hopped into the RV.

"So, what did you want to show me?" He asked. "Oh, nothing. I just wanted to get you to wear the sweatshirt. It looks cute on you." I said. "Really?" He asked. He struck a ridiculous looking pose, and then sat down next to me. He looked at me for a moment, and then asked, "Hey, is something wrong?" "Well, kinda. Didn't Megan run into the RV a little while ago? She's not here anymore." Logan stood up, and opened the door to the drivers room. "Megan?!" His gaze dropped. "Oh..."

"What is it Logan?" He had something in his hand, but I couldn't see what it was. "Kate, you might want to look at this." He tossed the thing-the shirt to me. It was scribbled on in sharpie. I read the note, and then went back and read it again. "Megan... she left?" I whispered. "We have to go tell everyone!" I ran to the RV door. I felt something on my shoulder. I turned around, and Logan was looking at me. "Hey, it's gonna be alright." His words were soft, but powerful in the silence of the RV. "I know, but-" "No, seriously, Kate. If Megan wants to come back, then she'll kill all of them. If she doesn't come back, then she wasn't a good friend to you in the first place, leaving you like that. We shouldn't go after her."

"Logan, we have to! She might get hurt!"

"Kate, we don't even know where she is! Wouldn't it be better to go back to the hospital, back to our friends, back to everyone? It's better to keep our family safe than go after people who run away. This is our _family _now. If Megan's coming back, then that's great. But if she dies out there... wouldn't it be better to not see the body? We would just assume that she's happy out there, running around by herself. Maybe that was made up, maybe she isn't after them, she just wants to leave."

Logan was rambling on about Megan. All of it seemed not like him. "Logan, what's the _real_ meaning of not going after Megan?" He looked at me and paused. "What I said about this being our family is true. All I have in this crazy world is you, and our group. If Megan- if my _family _is killed out there today, I don't want to know. I just want her to come back."

Logan looked like he was going to stop talking, but he bunched his fists and started talking louder, his voice raising into a yell. "Earlier today I didn't stand up for Megan! She could have died, but I didn't even say anything! I didn't know what was the right thing to do, because Megan had tried to shoot Alexa! You know what they say, an eye for an eye, and Alexa had every right to shoot Megan! But even so, I don't want her to die, I don't want anyone else to die!"

Logan opened his eyes. He was nearly crying, and his face was bright red. He wouldn't look at me. "Logan..." I mumbled. I didn't know what to say. I reached out, and my hand brushed against my face. He was burning up. Logan's eyes shifted to look at me. His expression turned into a weak smile, and he jokingly leaned forward to kiss me. I leaned in for a big hug but I wasn't joking when I kissed him back.

He was shocked at first, and he nearly stumbled back, but he caught himself before he could fall. The shirt dropped out of my hands, and I wrapped my arms around Logan's neck. His hands were on my cheeks. Pure silence.

All of a sudden the RV door opened and Maddy walked in. Logan actually fell back this time, and he hit his head on the wall. "Ow." He mumbled. "Uh... sorry guys." Maddy said as a sly grin spread across her face. _She saw us kissing!_ Maddy went to close the door, but then she saw the shirt on the ground. "Hey, isn't that Megan's?" She picked it up, and then read the note.

"Well that's just great! Megan ran off!" Maddy kicked the RV door, and then walked inside the department store. "Hey everybody! Megan's gone!" I heard her shout. I heard a 'yippee' from Alexa but the others were silent. I grabbed Logan's arm and dragged him out of the RV, and back into the department store.

"Megan doesn't want us to come after her. Should we, or just wait for her to come back to us? Vote on it." Logan immediately said, "I think we should go back to the hospital and wait for her." "Me too." I said. Matisse, Alexa, and Chandler all agreed with us. "If she doesn't want us to come after her, then we shouldn't." Matisse said. "Okay, then pack up guys. Move everything into the RV. We're taking off soon so we can get back before night. It looks like it might snow, and I don't want us to get stuck in that."

Everyone started scurrying in different directions, grabbing piles of valuables and taking them out into the RV. Logan whispered in my ear, "Come on, lets go grab the coats. It's freezing outside!"

"Oh really?!" I replied.


	50. Chapter 49

49: Maddy

I packed up the last few things, carrying them all to the RV. I had gotten an entire new outfit, and it was nice having clothes that wasn't covered in blood and guts. I had some blue converse, some blue jeans, a walking dead t-shirt (ironic, right?) and a dark green hoodie. I grabbed a few other outfits (not as many as Kate. All I can say is Holy. Crap. That girl knows how to shop!) I had also grabbed a light green coat.

I carried some of the coats to the RV, being assisted by Kate and Logan. When we had walked outside, it started snowing. "I hope Megan will be okay." I mumbled under my breath. "It's going to snow a lot." I ran back inside. Chandler was walking out the door, carrying some science-y stuff. "Anything else important up there C?" He shook his head. "This is the last of it." "Great." I helped him carry the box of tools and supplied out to the RV. It was pretty packed in there. Kate and Logan were squished up on the couch, coats overflowing onto them. Matisse was laying on the table, and all the blankets were on top of her and Renee along with everyone else was in the back. Chandler was the last in, so he was stuck sitting on the floor.  
Alexa sat up front with me. She was quiet at first, and deep in thought. I wish I could just read her mind, like how she could read mine. I had started up the RV, and had been driving for awhile before she spoke. "I knew Megan was going to leave. I read her mind. She's really mad, and she may be reckless. I'm not sure if she's going to live." Then she sighed. "I hate Megan. But I don't want her to die. I just want her to leave me alone."

"Hey, Meg is tough. She can kill those people. Who knows, maybe those people had some good supplies that she'll bring back. Don't worry, she'll be fine." Alexa looked at me funny. "You seem really confident that she's going to live." I kept my eyes on the road, but replied, "I've known Megan for awhile now. Like I said, she's tough." Alexa nodded, still deep in thought. "I-I might be able to reach her."

"What do you mean?" I asked her. "Well, I've known her for awhile now, just like everyone else in the group. If I try to search for her thoughts, maybe I can find her." "Well, that sounds crazy, and extremely strange, but go ahead and try." She didn't reply; her eyes were shut tight and she looked like she was searching her mind. _Dang, my life is turning more into a fantasy book by the minute! _

I grinned at my own joke, and turned the RV to avoid running over a corpse. _It's sad to think that this is normal for us. Doing things as simple as shopping was an amazing surprise. If the world was still normal then I would be doing this every other weekend with my friends! And now I don't even know if it's the weekend. I don't know what month it is, hell, I don't even know what year it is anymore! I just hope when-I mean IF-the world goes back to normal, that we can readjust back to normal life. _

Truthfully, I liked killing walkers. I liked how everybody kind of looks up to me as their leader. However, when I screw up, when Kristen died, when Jarrett died saving Carl, I felt responsible. I just hope I won't be pushed to the brink of a mental breakdown. If we got Megan back, I would stock up the hospital, fortify it from walkers and humans, and I would get everything to go back to normal. If this world won't fix itself, then my friends and I will be the ones responsible for fixing it ourselves. If we could get to a town, find some refugees, build a wall, maybe we could beat this world. And maybe, just maybe, when they write history books about the era of the walkers, my name might be in it. Not just my name, but everybody's. Alexa, Logan, Kate, Chandler, Megan, Renee, Matisse, Katie, Mitch, Carl, KK, Gino, Randall, Toby, Alex, Kendall, and Bentley.

Scratch that. I don't like Bentley. Leave her OUT of the history books.

But still, even the dead would be in it. Kristen, Jarrett, Maggie, Aaron, Gabe. All of those people, getting their own chapter. They would be known as the people who helped create the new world.

Okay, my mind was wandering off. Short term goals. I might not live to see the long term goals.

I looked over to Alexa. She was still thinking about Megan. All of a sudden, her hand shot out and grabbed my arm. "She's alive."


	51. Chapter 50

50: Megan

"Ummmm boss?" Paul asked, his voice filled with worry. I turned around to see one of the 'bosses' walking towards us. Well, limping is more like it. "Shit I forgot!" I whipped my gun out, the one with the blade duct-taped to the front, and lunged forward, the knife piercing him in the neck. He fell with a moan. I flipped the gun and smashed the butt of it into his head.

"They're all coming back!" Simon yelled. "What do we do?!" Paul screamed. I drowned all of the background noise out. Clearly Luke wasn't wrong about these two never shutting up. I squatted and stuck out my gun, the knife part sticking out to trip another one of the 'bosses'. He walked right into it and fell, but before he could get up my knife was in his skull. I got onto my knees and sniped one of the female bosses, shooting her right in the eye as she got closer. She fell loudly with a thump onto another male boss. I smiled victoriously as I decapitated him. This was easier than I thought. I looked up and let out a small squeal. The last male boss was right over me. I shoved the gun up and pushed hard into his jaw. A crunching sound filled the air, and I pushed harder, causing him to fall before his jaw would break. He crashed to the ground, and I stood up and slammed my foot down on his head. The final boss approached me. I picked the gun up and shot her in the head. I wasn't really sure if I actually shot her, but she was still. I kicked her for good measure and let out a long breath. All of those people were dead. Killed twice by me. I smiled. I haven't felt this good in a while. Nor have I killed so many times by myself.

"What...how did you do that Megan?" Luke said as I turned. Before I could reply, Simon was jumping up and down in front of Paul. "I told you that they'd come back to life!""Well why didn't you tell us!?" Luke questioned. "We could have all died!"

Simon and Paul completely ignored Luke. "So what?!" Paul retorted. It's not like you had any proof or anything until now." Paul said, crossing his hands over his chest. "Yeah I did! if you guys haven't realized already, once you're dead you come back as a lamebrain." Simon said simply. "Everyone is infected already."

"Yeah." I nodded. "Simon is sadly right. No matter what the cause of death is, as long as your brain is unharmed, you will come back as a walker." "See, look who's right Paul!" Simon yelled as he made a face at Paul. Paul ignored him and turned to me. "Walkers?" He asked.

"Walkers, zombies, lamebrains. Same thing." Luke replied. "Now please shut up.""But-" Paul cried. "Just shut up Paul." "For just a bit." I replied, touching his arm. "No problem Megan!" He said immediately. "So they listen to you and not me." Luke mumbled so only I heard.

"Anyways what did you want to say Luke?" I asked, using my old tank top that had a hole in it to wash off the blood from my gun and knife. "Where did you learn to do all that?" Luke asked. "Well, there's a first for everything." I shrugged. "The fighting, I had to learn. If not, I probably wouldn't be here. My old group was always on the move."

"Group?" Luke asked. "Yeah, I was in a group before I got here. I might still be in it, as long as they let me bring you guys back." I sighed. Looks like it will be a night for stories. "Let's eat. I'll tell you about them."

"Ugh but I want to tell _my_ story!" Paul complained. "Fine. Tell it to me. What happened right before I got here?" I said as I sat down and looked at the food.

"Well, this happened when I was in class. We go to the same school, and I've seen you around, but Simon and I are two grades above you. You know that." He gestured to me. "So anyways, my class wasn't so lucky. The walkers came right in. Our teacher tried to protect us, because she thought that the man was on drugs. He bit her neck, and then we knew he was a zombie. The class had seen enough zombie movies in their lives to know what was going on. They started panicking. The class bolted to the door, trampling Simon. I yanked him off the ground and I started going for the window. Tomas-you might not know him Megan, he was held back three times-but he was a troublemaker. He ran over to me and Simon, and yanked a pocketknife out of his backpack. Obviously, he wasn't supposed to have it with him, but he was off his meds, and he was insane. So anyways, he sprung to the zombie, and stabbed it in the neck. Once he killed that zombie, he kind of let the shock wash over him. Within seconds, he was turning to Simon, and lunging for him."

"It's true." Simon interrupted, muffled by a mouthful of sandwich.

"Shut up Si, I'm telling the story." Paul snapped at him. "So Tomas swung at Simon, and I tripped him before he could stab him. I let go of Simon and slid over to Tomas. He rolled over and then cut up my arm." Paul pulled up his sleeve to show scars on his arm, right above his elbow. "And then I flicked my blood into his eyes. Yeah, it was gross, but he couldn't see, so it worked. Then I climbed on top of him and snapped his neck. Then I took the knife, went back to Simon, who was still out of breath from being trampled on. Then we climbed out the window and bosses captured us."

Paul paused. "So... about today, in the morning bosses sent Simon, Crowley, me, Luke, and Jacob to go kill this group. They had been staking out at a hospital we were set to move to next. Not only did they do that, but we allied with this other group over at our high school, but they went over and joined them. Their leader never explained why. But if we didn't kill them all, we would be killed as soon as we got back." He said. "Bosses WERE NOT accepting a failure." Paul paused to grab another handful of chips. I watched Luke, Paul and Simon scarf it all down. Clearly they haven't had this much food since the apocalypse started. Paul inhaled the chips and continued.

"So we set out and went to the town. Trust me, it is about a days journey to get there by foot." "Actually it is an 8 hour trip to be exact." Simon put in.

"Anyways, when we got to the department store, there was a RV. Bosses had warned us about their cars and stuff and they said that if we see this RV then part of their group is definitely nearby. We were glad, because it meant that we wouldn't have to trek all the way to the hospital, and we could just gun them down just a mile away from camp." "Actually, it's only a quarter of a mile, Paul. You exaggerate a lot." "Shut up Simon!" Paul laughed. "They weren't too hard to find, they were in the department store. We snuck around and then we began to shoot as through the windows as soon as a person was down there." Paul said.

"Now, we didn't want to do this, but yet again we would be killed by the bosses if we failed." Simon butted in. "Oh and the person we saw was a girl wearing some jeans and a smiley face cut off shirt."

I felt my face go red. That girl was me. "Then they began shooting back. We thought it was just the one girl, but there were more people upstairs. They came down, firing everywhere. They looked _so_ cool, all defensive and ready to be shot at. They ended up killing Crowley and Jacob but we ran off, hoping that we killed them all, because they stopped shooting at us. But none of us remembered actually shooting anyone down." Paul said. "I still feel horrible though."

"You okay Megan?" Luke asked looking at me. "That girl was me." I said immediately. "What?!" Paul spit out his food. I opened my jacket, revealing my smiley face t-shirt. "That was my group, and the girl you saw was me. No one died but you did hit one of our people." I replied.

"Oh. So no one is dead?" Paul asked. "Nope." I simply said. "Well I don't feel as guilty now." Paul said with a sigh. "Wait why are you here? Shouldn't you be with your group or shouldn't they be here?" Luke spoke up.

"Why I'm here? It's a long story, but I left my group. They won't follow me." I said. "Well, we've got the time. Tell us your story. We will share ours after." Luke said.

"Well I guess we do have time." I said, looking at the sun setting. It's not like we could leave before sunrise anyways. So then I told him my story, skipping some minor details but adding them in when they asked to. Which was a lot. Well at least from Paul and Simon. Luke hardly spoke the whole time, mostly commenting on the people I mentioned that he knew. There was something odd about him not speaking up, normally he was talking and smiling or even laughing.

"And that's how I ended up here." I said once I finished. "Wait so this Alexa girl is your new found enemy?" Paul asked. "Yes Paul. Alexa reminds her of someone who picked on her and stole her friends in 4th grade. She is trying to take Maddy who is her best friend. She is here to prove that she is dependable and still Maddy's best friend." Luke said simply. "Weren't you listening?! And now she doesn't want to go back because Alexa is there. But us three are going to make her go back, with us. We will prove that we are going to be the best members, and we will make her jealous because Megan has me, and she's still single." Luke explained, sounding a lot more like himself.

"Yeah!" Paul cheered, splashing a bit of water out of his water bottle as he fist-pumped the air. "Dang, I thought I was the smart one. But I agree!" Simon smiled. "You guys we don't-" I protested.

"Oh come on Meg, we are going back. Once we get some new clothes from that department store. And some weapons. Oh, and some zombie killing." Luke smiled. No, not his fake smile. The genuine one that melted my heart.

"Alright." I said with a smile. This caused all the boys to cheer. They all smiled. I couldn't help but smile too. "But only after I hear your stories tomorrow. We need some rest."

"Ugh we're not tired!" Paul complained, stifling a yawn. "We're fine really Megan." Luke complained. "Yah!" Simon said. He yawned right after it. "Or not…" "Yeah you do!" I said back. "Never!" The boys screamed at me, a gleam in their eyes.

"Yes!" I hollered back.  
"No!" They retorted, laughing.  
"Yes!" I laughed.

We burst out laughing and it felt good. This is seriously the best I've felt in a while and clearly the same with them. They smiled and slapped the table as they tried to catch their breath. I sighed a bit. If only every day was like this. Slowly we all got our breath back. Luke whispered eagerly into Paul and Simon's ears.

"We will go to sleep." Luke declared. "Good, now go-" I was cut off. "Once you kiss me." Luke said with a smile.

I stared at him. Kiss him? I know I've done it before. Plenty of times. But now it felt a bit weird. He had pulled away from the hug but now he wanted to kiss me? I looked confusedly at him.

"He needs to remember!" Paul said.  
"He needs to feel love again." Simon said, his eyes sparkling, with a silly grin on his face.  
"Are you sure?" I asked.  
"Of course." Luke replied.

I stood up and he did too. I smiled at him. He leaned forward as did I. My eyes fluttered closed as I got closer to him. Suddenly I felt his lips against mine. He pulled away. He stared at me. I was worried. What if he didn't love me anymore? Then he pulled me close and kissed me again. And again.

"Gross!" Paul screamed, laughing. "Hey guys we should put the fire out now. It's getting dark." Simon said. "And we've seen enough kissing for today." Luke pulled away and smiled. "Alright."

We put out the fire and pushed all of the sleeping bags we now had into a row. Simon and Paul were both curled up in their sleeping bags, chatting. Luke sat by me. "Are you sure you want to keep watch?" He asked. "Of course! You guys need some major rest. Anyways I rested a lot when we driving to the store." I replied. "Alright. Well thanks for saving us," Luke said as he touched my arm, sending goose bumps all the way up it. "You really saved us and you made me myself again." "I know." I said simply. "Now go rest up!" I said with a laugh.

Luke nodded but before he got up, he leaned forward and kissed me. "Hugs and kisses are way better than punching and kicking." He said as he walked over and curled up in a sleeping bag. I walked forward and sat on top of a log. With my customized M14 on my lap, I searched through the woods for any zombies. I couldn't help but listen to the boys talking as they fell asleep. It had also begun to snow which really sucked. But Luke had given me his hoodie before he walked away.

"Luke you were so right." Paul yawned. "She is really hot."  
"And nice." Simon added.  
"And fun." Paul added.  
"And smart." Simon said after yawning.  
"And kind." Paul yawned in the middle of 'and'. "And now she's pretty kick butt."  
"You're lucky man. You've got a girl in this apocalypse." Simon let out a laugh-yawn.  
"I know I know." Luke sighed. "She is amazing isn't she?"

They were quiet after that and I could only assume that they finally fell asleep. Those compliments filled my mind and I smiled. They had said that about me and they have only known me for a few hours. No one in my old group had said anything so nice in forever. Nor have they laughed and joked around like these guys are. Seriously my best day in the apocalypse. Well maybe not the beginning but without I wouldn't have found them. I kept watch, shivering in the dark.

The sun was getting close to rising. I shivered. Still pretty darn cold out here. Suddenly I felt something slip over my shoulders. It was a sleeping bag. I smiled and looked up. Luke. "Go rest. I'll get everyone up when the sun is fully up." He said. He looked rested and like himself. Well, he needed a haircut and some clean clothes but that could be fixed today.

"Alright. Thanks." I said with a yawn and stumbled over to the row of sleeping bags and curled up inside of one.


	52. Chapter 51

51: Luke

I smiled as I dragged the sleeping bag over. I really was myself again and it felt amazing. No longer hiding my face. No longer faking my voice, my laugh, my smile. No longer being treated like a slave. And it was all because of her. I practically could give her my life and I would still owe her big time. The least I could do was this. I slipped the sleeping bag over her shoulders. She looked up and smiled. "Go rest. I'll get everyone up when the sun is fully up." I said, taking her gun-knife thingy.

"Alright. Thanks." She said as she got up and stumbled over to the sleeping bags.

I watched as she curled up in one and began sleeping immediately. I kept watch now. Her gun knife thing right in my hands. I wasn't exactly eager to be doing this but anything for her. Still I didn't have an idea of what is do if I saw a zombie coming. Scream? Probably. I laughed a bit at myself. Like she said there is a first for everything.

The sunrise was finally done I'd say about a hour later. I got up and shook Paul. "Ugh," He groaned.

"Get up Paul." I grunted.  
"Fine." He mumbled and sat up.  
"Why am I awake first!?" He complained. "Simon, dude, wake up. Like wake up now." He said as he shook Simon.  
"Really. Really Paul." Simon said as he sat up and yawned.  
"I'll wake Megan up in a bit. Go eat. Save some for us though." I ordered.  
"No problem." Simon nodded and dragged Paul, who was still trying to sleep, over to the food.

Now_ this_ I was use to. Waking up at the crack of dawn. Ordering Paul and Simon to get up and eat. But now it was only them. No Crowley. No Jacob. No bosses. All the food we could eat. I was still the slave leader in their eyes, but now we were free, and Megan was now someone we all looked up to.

Speaking of Megan, I looked over at her. Her eyes were closed loosely and her hair was spread around her. She even looked pretty when she slept. I sighed. She would be mad if I woke her up later than well now. And we probably wouldn't have much left to eat. Paul was a pig when it comes to food. I gently leaned forward and shook her lightly.

"Hmmmm?" She blinked her eyes open and slowly got into a sitting position. "Morning." She yawned."Morning." I replied back. "We should go get some food. Paul eats a lot." I said with a smile, gesturing to Paul who was now wide awake and digging in. I nodded and we walked over and sat down and began to eat. "See we saved you some food!" Simon said with a laugh, gesturing to the pile.


	53. Chapter 52

52: Megan

"Okay so which one of you is telling your story next? I heard it from Paul last night, but I never heard your version of the story Simon, and Luke never said anything." I stated, eating but taking my time.

"I'll go, I'm done eating now." Luke said. "Go on." I replied, drinking from a water bottle.

"Well, I was in school with Megan when it started. I was knocked out, and then I woke up just before our teacher. She woke up and pretty much shoved me out of the classroom and out a broken window. Then she jumped and went crazy."

"Not a surprise. She was kinda crazy." I said, shrugging. "Yeah that's why I wasn't there when you woke up." I nodded my head. "Anyways, Jacob-"

"Jacob D?!" I asked. "Yeah." Luke smiled. "We were running around together when bosses found us and immediately took us to their camp. They used us and beat us worse than Paul and Simon. I got fed up really quick and ran away. I ran to a ph-"

"The pharmacy." I said catching on. "Yup. Once there I went through the back door and grabbed a pipe and killed some zombies with you. I didn't show my face because I knew bosses were nearby, trying to capture me. I brought you to Logan's, my neighbor who I played soccer with. Pretty cool guy. Anyways once there, I noticed the zombies but bosses had already gotten me, and that's why I didn't help. They took me back and abused me even more, putting those stupid zip ties on my hands. Then Paul, Simon, and Crowley joined. I was pretty much their leader along with Jacob until he began to go crazy and become, well, emo."

"Jacob, emo?" I said, finding it hard to imagine him being so dark. "Yes. He ended up being killed back there." Luke nodded sadly. "Then you found us." "So Jacob is dead?" I asked. "That's what he said." Simon nodded.

"Well we better be going. We need to gather everything we can from here. And find a way to the store. Kinda just followed the fire." I said. "Okay well I know a shortcut there." Simon said simply. "It's a no trespassing zone. We'll be there in no time!" Simon smiled.

"Okay well let's get some supplies here and go!" Luke declared and we all got up and made a pile of things to bring. "I'll get the sleeping bags, tent, and chairs." Simon called. "I'll get the food!" Paul said as he stuffed it into a bag. "I'll get the maps and weapons." Luke called. "I'll help get weapons." I said.

We all quickly dispersed and began to collect items. It wasn't hard to find the weapons the bosses used, it was in a chest by a tree, near the place they had the fire. 3 guns, M14's I think. 5 swords, one of which a katana and the other 4 just average swords. 9 pocket knives, and an axe. I slowly gathered all of them, glad they all had a case. I trudged to the pile. Which now was huge.

"Okay I think we're good." I said smiling. "Yeah...we have enough food to feed us for a week!" Paul said, lifting up the 4 bags of food. "Now to split this up to car-" Simon began to say. "Let's use this shopping cart." Luke said as he pushed a rusty, half full shopping cart forward. "That works too." Simon said. "Okay we can carry all of the sleeping bags. Put the rest of the weapons and food in the shopping cart. Can we put the maps in your backpack Megan?" Simon questioned.

"Of course." I leaned down and opened my backpack which was getting pretty full. Once we had put everything in, the shopping cart was full. Simon had even used some bungee cords he found to strap most of the sleeping bags on top of it.

"I'll push the shopping cart." Paul said. He was eyeing a certain bag. Pretty sure it had food in it. "I'll carry the remainder of the sleeping bags." Simon attempted to pick up the 3 sleeping bags."Take two, I'll take one. You're leading us anyways." I said. "Okay." Simon picked them up. "Oh and everyone grab a weapon. Preferably one gun and something else." I grabbed a pocket knife just to be safe.

Luke grabbed a M14, which he confirmed right, and the axe. Simon picked up a M14, looking a bit intimidated. He took a pocket knife and smiled. Paul picked up another M14, the katana, and shoved a pocket knife in his pocket. "Let's go team!" I said as I pulled out my M14 and pointed the way out.

We all cheered and raced out, Simon in the front. We stopped racing pretty fast due to the fact that Paul almost knocked over the cart and Simon dropped a sleeping bag. We laughed and made a line. Simon in front with his gun out, Paul next with his katana across his shoulders and gun in between the sleeping bags, Luke next with his gun and his axe in the strap he found, and me last with my gun out. I turned around every few minutes. So far, so good.

"Almost there. Just gotta turn right then left then right down an alley." Simon said as he turned around. "Behind you!" Paul yelled. Simon spun around, his gun out. He shot and killed a zombie. "Nice shot!" I yelled. "We've got company." Luke pointed out. "Kill them!" Paul yelled as he stopped pushing the cart and charged forward, wielding his katana.

I began sniping some zombies that were getting too close to me, then ran forward and began to use my knife. Luke was skillfully using his axe as if chopping wood. The apocalypse was increasing his strength, and he was chopping the heads as if it was nothing. Paul was decapitating practically any zombie in reach. Simon was shooting zombies that were far away. Eventually, the walkers stopped coming.

"Well, just show my group that and you'll get in." I said truthfully. "Let's go." Luke said with a smile as he put his axe back and began to walk.

Paul put his katana in its case and began to push the cart. We followed Simon as he zigzagged through the streets, avoiding the corpses littering the roads. Finally we reached a metal fence. There was a sign taped to it, written in permanent ink. It said, 'Who are you and where are you from? We don't like when visitors come. NO TRESPASSING!' The words sounded familiar, but I couldn't realize what it was at first. Then it hit me. It's the chorus to Trespassing by Adam Lambert.

"It's a joke." I said. "What?" Simon asked. "Those words, it's the chorus to a song." Simon looked up at the sky. "Wow, music. I haven't heard that in so long... Hey Megan, you have a phone or anything that could play music?"

"I seriously doubt it." I stated. I reached into my backpack, and wrapped my hand around the cold metal. I pulled out my iPhone, and threw it to Simon. He reached up and caught it. "Simon, it's been _months_ since I've turned it on, it's either broken or dead." Simon put his finger on the 'on' button, and the screen flashed to life. The battery sign flashed at 4%. "Woah..." I pulled the phone away from Simon, going to my music, and turning on the song. The music was the best thing I had ever heard. It's been so long since I have actually heard music.

We all stood, mesmerized by the music, until Paul broke the peace. He leaped the fence, and he easily pulled the shopping cart over too. I guess being six and a half feet tall had its advantages.

Paul helped us over, and then we all walked, following Simon; taking in the song's lyrics. After two plays of it I began to sing along, knowing all the lyrics from years ago when it first came out. Luke caught on pretty fast, then Simon and Paul. We were getting close to the end of the 'No Trespassing' zone, we were dancing and singing along, looking like complete fools.

"Hey there's the department store!" I said, pointing it out, as we reached the end of the no trespassing zone.

"And there's a crowd of angry hungry walkers." Luke said, gesturing to the other side. "Zombies first. Clothes and stuff next." I said as we charged forward.

I wasn't worried about them. They clearly either had some major skills or just caught on amazingly fast. Now they impressed me even more. Paul was using his katana. Simon was sniping a huge section of the herd, closer to the front. Luke was in the middle, swinging his axe still as if the zombies were trees. I was stabbing and shooting zombies. It didn't take long before there was a huge pile of zombies, none of which were alive-I mean undead.

"Okay, seriously just show the group this and you'll be in." I said with a smile. "Now for some clean clothes." We all nodded and brought all of our supplies in. We left the shopping cart and the sleeping bags in a pile on the main floor. We all split up, Paul going towards the food section, Simon towards the weapons, and Luke towards men's clothes. I headed to the juniors section. You can never have too much clothes! The section also happened to be right next to Luke. After digging around a bit, I found a huge bag to put my clothes in. "Luke. Everything pink is gone." I smiled.

"Kate was here." He said with a laugh.

I nodded and began to pack some clothes. 3 pairs of sweatpants, 2 more jeans, a skirt, another smiley face shirt, a teal striped shirt, a yellow tank top, a teal tank top, and teal sneakers. I picked it up and looked over at Luke. "I'm done." I said. "Me too, lets go get you some weapons and then we can go." He replied.

We walked to the weapon section. Simon was already there, looking shocked as he realized that there was nothing there. All that was there was a katana, broken in half, laying on the ground. The group really _had_ cleared everything out! "Bad news guys, no new weapons." I plainly stated, while walking back out of the weapons section.

"We have 7 bags of food and 7 more of water" Paul said. "I think we're good!" Luke declared as he packed things back in, tighter than last time. "Let's go! I'll lead this time, Simon you got the back. Luke behind me and Paul behind him." I ordered. "I've got the shopping cart." Paul said as he grabbed it. "I'll carry the clothes and a sleeping bag." I said grabbing it. "I've got the rest." Simon said as he gathered everything else in his arms.

We all got in line and walked out. "All clear. Follow me." I pulled my gun out and walked to the hospital, remembering the landmarks we drove by.


	54. Chapter 53

53: Kate

We all sat in silence in the RV. It was weird with Megan not being here. Nearly everyone looked a little uneasy, except Chandler. He sat there with his face hardened like stone. His eyes darted from face to face, but he refused to make eye contact.

"Erm, so..." I mumbled to decrease the awkwardness. "Yeah Kate?" Logan asked. He squeezed my hand and smiled. "You have something to say?" I looked at Logan, and completely forgot what I wanted to say. "ummm... uhh..." Logan laughed, and it was contagious. Everyone started laughing, even Chandler. It was short-lived though, and he went back to being serious, seeming to be thinking about something. Logan came close to my ear and whispered, "Follow me."

I stood up, Logan pulling my hand. He attempted to move all of the stuff out of the way, but he gave up and just walked over it. I followed him, nearly tripping over my own feet. We walked to the back of the RV, and then Logan opened the door that led to the bedroom in the back. This was the room where I would always talk to my friends when we were on the road. It seemed like so long ago.

Logan sat down on the bed. "Kate, there's been something troubling me."

"What is it Logan?"

"Well, it's just that we have known each other for months now. I can't tell you exactly how long, but it was sunny when we met, and now there is snow covering the ground. This makes me think I've known you for six months."

"Why does that bother you?" I asked, sitting down next to him.

"Kate, I know nothing about you. Being in the zombie apocalypse, we don't have much time to talk about normal things, like what we enjoy, our hobbies, you know, stuff like that." I nodded, holding onto every word. He was right. I didn't know much about him either. "Well, then I guess we'll just have to change that. I'll go first." I said. "Ummm my full name is Kathryn Marie Rogers, I have or had, five people in my family, my parents, older brother, Renee and I. I have been a competitive swimmer since I was eight, my birthday is on June 27th, and some of my best friends that you know are Matisse, Maddy, and Megan. I can literally shop till I drop, oh and I also have a super cool, cute, funny, smart boyfriend."

"Oh and now you just have me huh..." _You'vegottabekiddingme_. "Logan I was talking about you!"

"Oh... Got it." He said blushing. "Anything else you wanna know?" I asked as he pushed some hair behind my ears. "Nope, I think thats it."

"Ok so now you get to tell me about you!" I squealed. "Ok, my full name is Logan Alex Glenn, I had two younger brothers, my favorite color is blue, and I really like soccer. I played it all the time with my neighbors and Maddy. Hmmm... what else do I like? Oh, I also like to beat up my brothers for fun." Logan laughed, but then he went serious. "I just wish that I could see them again and apologize."

"That's sweet." I said as I grabbed hold of his hand. "It's okay, they might still be out there." He looked at me, and whispered "I'm not so sure about that. It's all my fault. If I hadn't been at the movies; if I had stayed at home like I was supposed to, they might be okay." He dropped his gaze to the floor. "You know, I was supposed to be babysitting them. I just assumed they were old enough to take care of themselves. They would be turning 15 this year. They would have been safe if I was there. It wasn't my fault that the apocalypse happened right at that moment!" His voice grew angry, and he stood up. "I just need to find them, and make sure they're okay."

He slowly sat back down, taking deep breaths. "They're my brothers, and I treated them like they were nothing. I pretty much left them for the dead, even though I didn't know the dead would rise up to eat the living. I just want to make it up to them, somehow." He looked over to me, waiting for me to reply. "Well..." I started. "Like you said, they were 14, and that's old enough to survive. Besides, if you really _did_ have fun beating them up, then they should know how to defend themselves." A faint smile spread across his face. "How is it that you always know exactly what to say to cheer me up?"

"Well, when you spend the entire apocalypse with someone, I guess you start to notice the little things about them." Now the smile on Logan's face grew, and it spread from ear to ear. "That's one of the things I like about you. You notice those little details that I would never notice myself." His fingers were now entwined in mine.

"Kate, I really do care about you." He grinned at me, and it was contagious. I was smiling back now, and then he leaned forward to give me a hug. I hugged him back. All of a sudden, there was a knock on the door, and it swung open. Matisse was standing there, with a grin on her face. "You two lovebirds done in here?" I felt my face turn red. "Um... yeah." I grabbed Logan's wrist, and we walked out. We were climbing over the piles of sleeping bags and coats, when Matisse tripped behind us. "Smooth." Logan said. "Are you okay?" I screamed as I hit Logan in the arm. "Yeah." Matisse mumbled as she carefully stood up. She had fallen on her pile of high heels. She was okay, except for the fact that one of the heels was stuck in her hair. She struggled to get it out, and I started to laugh. "Shut up. It's not funny." She whined. "No, no it's pretty funny." I said as began to brush out her hair.

I saw Chandler looking from side to side, he jumped up onto Matisse's spot. "YES!" He yelled victoriously. "No more sitting on the dirty ground!"

"Of course..."Matisse sighed. She pulled the high heel out of her hair, and sat down on the ground. Me and Logan sat on the couch, and right at that moment the RV came to a stop.

"We're here already?" Matisse questioned. She stood up, and looked out the window. "Um... guys, look!" I came up next to her, and saw that we were in the middle of nowhere with snow still falling. Maddy and Alexa came out of the drivers room. "Bad news guys, the RV is out of gas. We have to find some, or leave it here."

"We can't leave it! We need the supplies in here." Logan called out. Alexa nodded. "We can send out a scouting party, and have them check a two mile radius around us. Who wants to check?" I raised my hand, and Logan did too. Alexa walked over to us. "Okay then, us three." "No way I'm letting you guys go without me." Maddy said with a smile. "I'm coming too." Alexa, still serious, nodded. "Then that makes us four." We grabbed our backpacks, my old pink one, Logan's blue one, Alexa's gold one, and Maddy's green one. I pulled out a pistol, while Logan pulled out his sword. Maddy had her old crossbow and a katana. Alexa had her weird sword thing. I think it was greek. Didn't she call it an Zy-foes? "It's a Xiphos. S." Alexa stated. "Were you reading my mind?" I questioned. She didn't reply, she just looked down as she polished her 'Xiphos.' I looked over at Logan, with her old Katana.

"Alright, lets go." I said. We grabbed some coats from the back, then we walked out the RV door, not looking back as the newly fallen snow crunched under our shoes. I stuck my tongue out like a child trying to catch a snowflake on my tongue. "What are you doing?" Alexa asked me. "What does it look like? Oh! I got one!"

"One what?"

"A snowflake... duh." Logan pulled me close and kissed my cheek. "She's just trying to lighten the mood Alexa." I smiled as Alexa just continued to look straight ahead.


	55. Chapter 54

54: Maddy

I was walking with my friends, on our journey to go find gasoline. This was an important trip; if we came back with gas we could leave, if we didn't then the group might never know what happened to us, our bodies decaying in the snow. Or maybe our bodies would never rest in peace. We might all be reanimated, only puppets, lifeless, not being able to remember, just being driven by our hunger for flesh. As much as I didn't want to, I could imagine these three friends by my side, tearing into our group-our friends-as they fell one by one.

Even before the apocalypse, I really wanted to kill zombies. I thought that I had worked out every single detail, but I never really imagined just how the zombies could feel. That is, _if_ they could feel. Would they forever be a mind trapped inside a prison of flesh? Forced to fight your movements as you attacked the last lives of humanity?

Alexa, who was in front of me, stopped. "What is it?" I growled out, the traces of fear in my voice still recognisable. She just turned to look at me, and frowned. "Dark thoughts, Maddy." Then she turned around and started walking again. I heard her voice speaking. It was loud and clear, like it was coming from my own mind, but her lips were moving and she said it out loud. "I can read your thoughts at any time, listen to your every idea. I can be inside your head, I can even kill you and then bring you back to life. Are you really most afraid of the walkers? We can take those out, no problem."

Kate and Logan seemed like they were trying to ignore Alexa. They were holding hands and walking a few feet to the right.

"I... I guess not." I mumbled, looking at the ground. "I just think about them a lot. You know, what they do. Just one bite, and it's over. Everything you were, everything you'll ever be. Gone." Alexa became silent. She looked up at the hill ahead of us, and sighed. "Well, you never really know. We could go over that hill and see a thousand walkers on the other side. We could all be dead in a minute. But the world was like that before too, wasn't it? Cars could crash, people could get shot, even though life was safer, nobody would ever be completely safe. We just have to take what we can get, and try to make the best of it."

I listened to what Alexa was saying. It made sense. Obviously, we didn't want a thousand walkers over the hill in front of us, but it could very well happen.

Kate and Logan, now slightly ahead of Alexa and I, reached the top of the hill. They started walking down the other side, and Alexa and I followed. There was a small neighborhood, leading into a town. Just from the top of the hill, I could see a few miles of houses and businesses, all looking untouched. We all ran down to the bottom of the hill, our shoes barely touching the ground. "Split up to scavenge, we'll meet back here soon. Only grab what you can carry, and remember that our main purpose for being here is to get gas.

I don't think Logan or Kate heard a single word I said. They're hands still together they practically skipped off together, obviously not planning on splitting up. Alexa walked off in a different direction, heading towards a red house with chipping paint. I walked into a house that was near me, and I started searching for gas. The place was eerie silent, and I wondered where all of the people were.

I walked straight into the garage. There were two cars, and I siphoned out the gas into a few containers. Both tanks were nearly full. It seemed strange that this town was untouched. I walked right back outside and placed the gas containers at the door.

I looked to my right, and saw Alexa running over. She was carrying two gas containers in each hand. Kate and Logan were both coming from the opposite direction, both holding more gas containers. "Nothing was looted. We really should come back here later and take more supplies. Strange thing is-" "There's nobody here." Logan cut Alexa off. "Yeah." She nodded. "Same here. Didn't see any walkers, or survivors." I agreed. "Well, we should get back to the group. We wouldn't want them to be wondering about where we are." Kate stated. "Besides, it's getting late. We should be getting back by now."

Kate was right. Looking at the sky, I realized that it was slowly growing darker. We hadn't expected that it would take this long. If it wasn't for this delay, we might have been back by now.

"Let us go!" Alexa jokingly exclaimed. She held up her sword in front of her and started to march up the hill, following our previous footprints in the snow.

Going back was much easier, since we actually knew where we were going. We followed our tracks all the way to the RV. Matisse greeted us at the door, dragging us inside. "Come on! It's freezing out there! We just want to get home!" Matisse yelled. She was curled up in a coat, and had blankets everywhere. Chandler had blankets on him too, and was shivering on the couch. "You're cold?" Logan grumbled. "We were the ones who hiked through the snow!" "What? Oh, yeah... you're right." Matisse said. She sat down on the floor, and Kate sat on the couch, forcing Chandler to move. Logan went outside to pump the gas into the RV. Within just a few minutes, we were on the road again.

The sun continued to set, and considering that it was winter, the ice was making it hard to drive. The trip to the hospital was harder than when we were leaving, the snow was newly fallen then. Now, we had to drive through a blizzard. Even though it had taken us well into the night, I could start to see lights in the distance. As glad as I was to see those, I would have to talk to Katie about keeping the lights so bright. They could attract walkers, or worse.

Everyone in the back was asleep. Alexa was wide awake next to me, but she seemed to be tired.

We pulled up to the hospital. It was good to be home. "We'll come out and carry everything at once in the morning. Lets just go in." I whispered to Alexa. She nodded, and started to walk out. I went into the back, and yelled out, "WAKE UP!" Logan jumped three feet up in the air as he sprung up. Kate woke up and stood up, pulling out her gun. Chandler woke up and slowly stood up. Matisse just stayed asleep. "Matisse?" I asked. Kate walked over and shook her. "MATISSE!" Matisse opened her eyes. "Uggggg," She moaned. "Are we here yet?"

"Yeah. Lets go." I said. "Five more minutes..." Matisse groaned, and she rolled over. Logan walked over and dragged her off of the couch, which she had obviously kicked everyone else off of. She landed on the ground. "Stop it! I'm coming!" Matisse yelled. She stood up, and walked out of the RV.

We all walked over to the hospital. I banged on the door, so everybody would know we weren't threats, and that it was just us. Within just a few seconds, the door opened. Mitch was standing there. He must have been in his room, because his room is the closest to the front doors. His eyes opened wide. "Maddy?" The door swung open and he let us inside. "We were so worried! You guys have been gone for like, three days!"

Katie walked out of her room, looking exhausted. "Oh, it's you guys. Welcome back." Katie yawned. "I think I'm going back to bed now. 'Night" She walked back into her room, and shut the door. "So, do you guys need anything? You must be tired."Mitch stated. "Oh, I hope you don't mind, but the new guys stole some of your rooms. I think Alex is in Chandlers room... And Bentley is in Megans. Hey, where is Megan?"

A silence engulfed the room. Mitch's eyes shifted from person to person, becoming more frightened with each movement. "Don't tell me she-" "No." Alexa mumbled. "She's fine. Just running late." Mitch looked relieved. "Good." Then he gestured around as if to say 'go ahead and sleep, it's like three in the morning.' Everyone separated into different rooms, trying to find places to sleep. Alexa and I walked up to our room upstairs. When we came out of the stairwell, we saw KK standing there. "KK, what are you doing up?" Alexa asked, sounding concerned. "I couldn't sleep. I was worried about you Alexa." KK ran over and gave her a hug. I walked into our room, and threw my bag onto the floor. I flopped onto the bed, and was asleep in instants.

I didn't hear Alexa come in, but I assumed that she did. In my dreams I ran around with Alexa, Kate, and Logan, all of us looking for supplies. We pulled away in the RV, leaving Megan stranded, and she was crying out to us, "Help me, help me." Nobody heard her calls, and we left her in the dust. We left her to die.


	56. Chapter 55

55: Megan

Goddammit! Maddy left us behind, _again!_

We had been walking over the hill, and the RV was there. It had looked like it was stranded there. Then we all had seen Maddy, Kate, Logan, and Alexa pile into the RV, carrying something I couldn't see. I had called out to them-we all had-but nobody heard. They had driven away, and now we were stuck.

We ran over to the spot where the RV had just been, all of us struggling to move in our winter gear.

"What now?" An irritated-sounding Luke questioned. "We can't go back, but we have no idea how far the hospital is."

"Well, we could follow the tire tracks, or we could go find a car." I grinned.

"Where are we going to find a car?" Paul jumped into the conversation.

"Shut up Paul, she has a plan!" Simon called out, his eyes gleaming.

"Well, if we piece together what we know, we can figure this out. The RV was stopped, but then when my group members piled in, carrying something, the RV started moving again. I mean, what could they have needed?"

"Ummm... to go pee in the woods?" Paul questioned. Simon answered him with a whack to the head.

"No Paul. I'm assuming they needed something for the RV, like an engine part, or some gas. Maybe they got that from a gas station, or a car repair shop. So, what _else_ can we get from one of those places?"

"A car!" Paul yelled triumphantly. "Yeah..." Luke said. "So if we follow their tracks in the snow over here, we could get the supplies!"

All four of us followed the footprints. It didn't take long until we reached the top of a hill, and then all of us stood there, mouths wide open. There was an entire town! Completely quiet, normal even! It looked like the virus had never even touched this place!

Breaking the silence, Luke let out a battle cry, running down the hill. Simon and Paul quickly followed, cheering and smiling the whole way down. I followed a little more cautiously, and then walked over to the nearest house. It seemed like this had been a little tourist town, because this house was more like a little cottage, and there were maps laying all over the place. I picked one up, only to see that it was a map of this town. I could see the hospital on the map too, and it didn't seem too far. By car it would take twenty minutes or so, as long as we didn't run into trouble. I was about to go outside to tell Luke, but something caught my eye. In the middle of the map, there was a big red circle. It was labeled 'GUNS'.

We really could use some more guns. There was a hand on my shoulder, and I spun around. "Oh, it's you." I said to Luke, who was now playing with my hair. "Hey!" He smiled. "What are you doing?"

"Look at this!" I handed him the map. "We should go get those guns." He studied the map and nodded. "Well, this map says we're right here." He pointed to a certain building. "That means, if we take this road, and then this one, we'll be right there."

"Sounds good!" I grabbed his hand and dragged him out the front door. Paul and Simon were right out there, standing by a car in the driveway. It was a dark blue truck, and Simon was obsessing over it. "C'mon Paul! Let's fix it up!" He begged. "Fine..." Paul mumbled. He turned around and saw me and Luke. "Oh, hey guys! This will only take us a minute. Just come meet us when you can."

Luke and I started walking down the street. It was so strange, being able to walk out in the open like that. It was silent, and there was nothing out there, not even a single bird. This had been our first winter in the apocalypse, and for once it seemed like life was actually normal.

Luke led me across the street, and we reached the area on the map. There was a strange barricade made there, that stood out from the rest of the town. There were big black letters on the side that read 'Government Supplied Guns. Defend Yourselves.' I cautiously walked over to the entrance. Luke helped me pull the doors open, however, what we saw was the opposite of what we were expecting. There were two zombies standing there in hazmat suits. There was a big white door labeled 'Quarantine center'. The door was rusty and falling apart.

The two zombies in the hazmat suits moaned and shuffled over. It seemed like the cold weather was freezing them, and they walked stiffly as if they couldn't move. Luke pulled out his pistol and shot them both. "Sorry about the noise, I just wasn't sure if a knife could penetrate those suits."

"Don't worry, gunshots don't make me jump anymore. It just becomes, you know, background noise from daily life." I said to him. "That's one thing the apocalypse will do to you. It makes you-" I was cut off by the clanging of metal. "What was that?" Luke whispered. The noise came again, and again, and again. All of a sudden, the doors to the quarantine room flew open.

I swear on my life, every single person who had been in this town, was inside that room. What was worse, they were all zombies. The doors that had once marked the room they were captive in, were covered in blood writing on the inside. They all said terrible things. I saw a few glimpses before I turned to run. 'They lied' 'My brother turned today' 'There were no guns here,' The list went on, all of the words written in blood.

"Luke! Help me shut the doors!" I screamed. The doors wouldn't budge. He struggled for a moment, and then just pulled me away. "No use! Just run!" We sprinted down the street, being chased by all the walkers. "PAUL! SIMON! GET THE CAR READY!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. Luke and I got to the car, and Paul started driving immediately. "What happened?!" He yelled, trying to focus on the road.

"Walkers. Hundreds of them. We have to get back to the hospital. Now."

"Um... there might be a problem with that..." Paul whispered.

"Why?!" I asked.

A car alarm went off. Not just any car alarm, but _this_ car alarm.

"Simon wouldn't leave this damn truck! I didn't think we would have to make a getaway from zombies! I was hoping I would have more time to fix the alarm, but we had broken into this truck and hotwired it... What are we going to-" "Shut up Paul, and think! Is there any way to fix the alarm?"

"Not without stopping and getting out, and there's no way I'm doing that now.

"Okay, then how loud is this alarm? If we get far enough away from the walkers then they might not hear it!"

"I-I don't know..." He slammed his foot down on the gas pedal even harder. "We'll just have to outrun-outdrive them."

"Okay... Then drive! The hospital is just a few minutes away from here!" I studied the map, looking for any landmarks that could tell us where we were.

We zoomed over a hill, and then the hospital was in view. I turned around and looked, only to see that the zombies were still following us! "Crap!" I yelled. "What can we do?!"

Paul looked like he was going to reply, but the truck lurched to the side, and started to flip over. The windows shattered and that was the exact moment when everything went chaotic.


	57. Chapter 56

56: What happened

Part 1: Maddy

There was a crash in the middle of the night. I woke up immediately. Alexa still wasn't in here, but that wasn't the thing I was worried about. I ran to the window, and saw a car, just a little ways away, on its top. There were hundreds, maybe even thousands of walkers coming this way. "Everybody UP!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. Renee ran over right away. "What's wrong?" She looked out the window. "Um... Gosh freaking darn it!" She really struggled not to swear as she ran away. "I'll pack whatever I can!"

Alexa ran out of Chandlers office. Ooh! Chandler's office! Do they have a thing now? "Stop thinking about that Maddy!" Alexa yelled. Oh right. Forgot she could read my mind. "Okay we need to get out NOW! Grab whatever food and weapons you can. We're not coming back."

Everyone was running around frantically, grabbing objects, weapons, food, whatever they could carry. Everyone was loading things into the RV, the walkers getting closer. There were three people running towards us, just ahead of the walkers. A fourth person was being devoured by walkers.

I ran back inside, and grabbed my green backpack. I collected everything in the room, and quickly ran around the top floor, to see if anything had been left. The last room I went into was the kids room, only to see that Carl and KK were still in there. "Come on guys, we have to go!"

"I'm staying." Carl stated. "I don't want to go."

"Carl, if you stay then you're going to go farther than you've been before. To the afterlife. Let's go!"

I grabbed both of his arms and lifted him over my shoulder. KK ran after us, laughing at Carl. We ran into the RV. "Where are Logan, Kate, Mitch, and Katie?!" I yelled. "Logan and Kate weren't here this morning! Mitch and Katie are still packing!" Alexa replied. At that moment, they both ran out, carrying bags, suitcases, whatever they could carry. Mitch ran in ahead of Katie. Katie screamed as the first walker here ripped into her arm. Alexa stabbed the walker in the head, and pushed Katie out. "You're infected!"

"No! Take me with you!" She screamed, tears covering her face. Without wasting a moment, Alexa decapitated Katie, her head landing on the ground. She dragged Katie's items in the door, and then shut the door. I stood there, shocked. Katie was dead. "Maddy! We have to go!" The walkers were banging on the door, trying to come in. I ran into the drivers room and started driving, still not really comprehending what was going on. I looked over, and realized that the walkers that were not within 20 feet of us were trailing away, running after those three people. Could that be Kate and Logan? Maybe even Megan? I tried not to think, if we even came close to that pack, we would be taken out. I steered the RV off the road, behind the hospital.

Part 2: Alexa

Maddy screaming pulled me out of my sleep "We need to get out of here!" She yelled. "Chandler, come on, somethings wrong!" I said, elbowing him awake. "What's going on?" he mumbled as he pulled a shirt on. "Walkers are on there way, we need to get out NOW" I pulled my hoodie on over my tank top. I slept in my clothes last night because I never got back to my room last night. I grabbed my Xiphos and Chandler grabbed Jarrett's old Katana Logan left behind and then we headed to my room.

Part 3: Logan

It started out normal. Middle of the night, going for a walk with Kate with the rest of group far behind. I just wanted to talk to her, and I thought that nothing would go wrong. Then the walkers came. Kate had pointed out a tool shed just a little ways away from the hospital. It might have been for maintenance, or maybe for something else. I didn't care what it was, as long as it was an escape.

We had outrun and killed more zombies then I had ever wanted to were now split up from the group, and the shed was locked from the outside. Now we were trapped. "We're gonna die, we're gonna die. Nobody is going to find us and we are going to die here... We're going to die." Kate paced back and forth around the room. The sun was starting to rise, who knows what time it was. "At least there's daylight now. Maybe I can bust the door open or crack a window." I said trying to cheer her up. To no prevail she kept pacing. "We're going to die, we're gonna die, face it! We are trapped with no food, no water, it's winter, and we are going to die!"

"It will be ok." I told her. "How? How in any way are we going to live through this!?" Her voice grew louder and she continued to pace again. "We're gonna die!"

"Kate."

"We're gonna die, I'm telling you now we're going to die."

"Kate."

"There's no avoiding it Logan." She continued to protest. "Kate!" I placed both my hands on her shoulders. She took a deep breath."What?"

I smiled at her, "It will be okay. After all we do have each other." She didn't smile back. "I know but what are we going to do!? Nobody knows where we are!"

"Someone will find us or we'll find our own way out, I'm sure of it."

"Really?"

"Of course." She finally gave me a smile and squeezed my hand tight. She slid her back down the wall and sat on the ground with her face in her hands. "Are, are you crying?" I asked her. She looked up at me as I began to sit down next to her. "No. Just laughing at myself." she answered, "I must have looked pretty stupid pacing around and talking to myself huh?"

"Not really."

"Well then thanks I guess."

"For what?"

"Giving me a reality check. We're not going to die here, we've handled worse than this right?"

"That's my girl." I answered. Her smile grew bigger as she leaned her head onto my shoulder. "But what are gonna do Logan?"

"Something." I whispered to her. "We'll be fine. I promise."

Part 4: Kate:

"Logan." He continued to bang against the wooden door. "Logan it's no use!" I screamed. He took a final shove and the door didn't budge. He took a deep breath as I stood behind him rubbing his shoulders. "But we need to get out of here." He said as we crumbled to the ground. "You think I don't know that!? We've been in here for 24 hours now!"

"Okay, okay." He replied. I smiled as he rubbed his forehead. "It will be ok Logan."

"What are the odds that of all people we are the two that get trapped together."

"I wouldn't call it luck."

"Huh?"

"More like fate I think."

"With no weapons?"

"Yeah that part's not so lucky." He kissed me on my cheek as I stood up. I started to search around the shack. "Hey do we have a flashlight?"

"No but... There." He grunted as he cracked the window open as far as it could go, without any walkers coming in. I couldn't see any, and I hoped they hadn't noticed us. "Oh thanks." I said. I crawled around sifting and sorting through boxes of junk and garbage. Logan kneeled down next me. "Are you looking for something?"

"I'm looking for anything to help us get out of here. Who knows, when we do break that door there could be thousands of zombies out there."

I took a deep breath and kept looking. "Never thought of that." Logan said. I then found a red wooden crate. I picked it up and shook it. "There's gotta be something metal in here!" I exclaimed. "Logan break this box open!"

"Um uhhh, yeah, I mean okay." He mumbled as he stomped and jumped on top the box. Finally it opened. Metal tools spilled out everywhere. Logan held his foot in pain. "Awww are you okay sweetie?" I said sarcastically. He coughed regaining his composure "Yeah, yeah I'm good. I think I stepped on a screwdriver though."

"Oh... Ouch." I went back to the tools and started sorting through the useful ones and not useful ones. "How did we not see this crate before!" I squealed. "A crowbar!"

"Are you serious?" Logan asked.

"No I'm just kidding."

"Kate?!"

"Dude I have it right here! Bust open that door!" I said as I collected all our supplies. It wasn't much but tools and our coats. Logan struggled at first but then finally found a crack big enough to put the crowbar in. "Almost got it..."

"Come on Logan!"

"Open!" He sighed. I rushed past him out the door. "Fresh air! It's beautiful out here! Logan come on out! We're all clear!" I spun around and smelled the grass . "Finally." Logan whispered as he hugged me from behind. I giggled as I twirled around to see his face. "Okay I hate to be a downer but we probably should go see if our friends are alive."

"Right." Logan sighed. I grabbed his hand, "Lets go..."

Part 5: Megan

After a moment of darkness, I opened my eyes. Windows were shattered all around me, but they weren't the only things shattered. Simon, who was in the back seat, had his left leg bent the wrong way, and it was laying limp. Luke looked as if he was about to die, and a gash in his head was bleeding heavily. Paul seemed to have cuts all over his arms and face. I assumed I looked like Paul, considering that we were both in the front seats. I looked over to where the door was, and I pushed it open. I looked outside, only to see that the walkers were still on our tails, and getting closer and closer by the second. I reached over to Paul and pulled him out of the door, and then I struggled to open the back door of the car to pull Luke out. Paul started to move.

"Paul?" I asked. He sat up, and let out a moan. I remembered what Maddy had said about all people turning into walkers, no matter the case of the death, and then I pulled out my knife. I ran to Paul, but then he yelled, "Hey, I'm alive!" I put my knife away and yelled back at him, "Stop joking around! We need to get them out!" He quickly stood up and ran over, and started pulling on the car door with me. It flew open with a loud crunch, and Luke tumbled out the door, still unconscious. Paul reached over to me so he could get Simon, but I didn't help. I was crouched down on the ground, checking if Luke was still alive. His heartbeat was faint, but it was still there. Simon was awake, but there was no way that he could walk. His leg was completely snapped, and the bone was sticking out of his skin.

Simon let out a cry of pain as he tried to stand up. "We-we have to... get away..." He groaned. He started to hop on his good leg, but fell flat on his face. "Simon!" Paul yelled. He ran over and helped Simon up.

Luke wasn't waking up. I lifted his arm onto my shoulder and stood up. "Paul, come help!" I yelled to him.

We started walking down the street, trying to get away from the walkers. We must have been strange to see, half of us nearly dead. I was on the far left, supporting Luke. Paul was on the other side of him, supporting his other arm. Simon was on the other side of Paul, and barely keeping up. The walkers were gaining on us, and we couldn't stay alive much longer. Finally, Simon spoke.

"Just go!" He barked. "I'm slowing you down! Just go, I'm already dead!" Obviously, Paul refused, and we pushed on. A few moments later, he spoke again. "My bones are like glass, shattering with each step. Please, just leave me. I can't make it."

He was right. Even though Paul refused again, Simon stumbled and fell. Paul ran over to him, and checked his breathing. There was none. Simon was dead. "NO! SIMON WAKE UP! SIMON!"

"Paul, come on, we have to go!" I screamed to him, struggling to carry Luke. Paul stood up emotionless, and sprinted to me. He grabbed Luke's unconscious body from me, swung him over his shoulder, and ran. I followed as close as I could.

I saw everyone leave the hospital, and realized that we wouldn't catch up. "This way!" I called over to Paul. We turned away from the hospital, and sprinted as quickly as we could. My lungs were burning, my mouth gasping for air. So was Paul's. We were both slowing down, and lacking the strength to go on much longer. We had run for a few miles, but we couldn't slow down. Walkers don't get tired, so they wouldn't have to stop for rest. _Run faster, keep running. Don't stop. _I couldn't tell if Paul was whispering to me, or if I was just hearing my own thoughts.

Another thought crossed my mind. _I'm delirious. I'm hallucinating. _Right in front of us, there was a huge building. We were approaching quickly, and the door appeared to be open. I followed Paul inside, and we slammed the door shut. Right after we closed the door, there were fists banging on it. At that moment, Paul collapsed. His face was red, and he looked like he was in shock. I looked around the room; there was a TV, a staircase, a couch, but nothing I could push in front of the door fast enough. I attempted to drag Paul and Luke up the stairs, but their motionless bodies wouldn't move.

A hand reached through the door. Then another, and another. A full arm reached inside, and then the door fell.

They began to pour inside.


	58. Epilogue

Epilogue

We had hit a few walkers, but we were pulling past a tool shed. The doors flew open, and Kate and Logan were there. I opened the doors. "Hop in!" I yelled. They smiled and crawled inside. I didn't wait for them to shut the door, I just drove. We had to get away. The entire hoard was following us, aside from a few walkers that followed Megan.

_Megan_. A sick feeling pierced me. She was dead. Out of everyone, I never expected Megan to die. I didn't need Alexa to tell me if she was okay. I knew. We all saw those walkers break the door down. She had run into a building, and Alexa had watched through binoculars. She had passed the pair around, so all of us could see what was going on. No matter how far she had run, she couldn't escape.

I wanted to forget. Lots of people die. Everybody goes in the end. Alexa, Chandler, Megan, and someday even I will be dead. It's just a matter of time until another person dies. I would just have to cope with it. If they want me to give them direction, tell them what we have to do, then I can't go mad.

Alexa sat next to me. Despite everything, she smiled to me. "I think there's something you need to see." I looked out the window, and saw Chandler, riding my motorcycle. On the other side of him, somebody was driving in the red car. It seemed like they had read my mind, and grabbed all of the vehicles. I had been so worried that we wouldn't all fit in the RV. "Who's in the car?" I asked Alexa. She shrugged. "We accidentally left Randy and Bentley behind, maybe it's them."

I noticed the sarcasm in her voice when she said 'accidentally.' She knew very well that they weren't in the RV. I tried not to laugh, but couldn't help it. Randy and Bentley were so annoying, I almost wish they had stayed.

We drove until nightfall. We would have kept going, but the RV engine broke. We didn't know what had happened, but Logan seemed to know. He started fixing it, and all of us piled out of the cars. Beside the light of a small, dying fire that Renee and Chandler had set, we laid out the maps.

"We're right here." I said pointing to a spot on the map. "We need to get out of this area, and get near the coast. The great lakes are miles away, but I have a feeling that the Upper Peninsula will be safer. Not many walkers can pile over this bridge, and there are less people who live up there. There might be less walkers, and hopefully more supplies." Alexa nodded, and she seemed to agree. "Lots of woodlands up there. I would always go camping there as a kid, and nearly everywhere I was had been surrounded by trees. It's completely sheltered, so it should be safer." Although the others looked skeptical, I agreed with her. "Sounds like a plan. Does anybody object?" I turned to everyone else.

Before they could reply, Logan walked over. "It's too dark, and I can't repair the engine until morning. We'll have to stay the night." He frowned. "I need the light to see what I'm doing. Is it okay to stay here for now?" Before Logan even finished talking, Alexa climbed to the top of the RV, and started looking around. "Coast is clear. So we all cram into the RV, and then what happens tomorrow?"

"What happens tomorrow?" I wondered, repeating her question. "Tomorrow... the next chapter begins."


End file.
